European funding of more than £4.7 million is being invested in initiatives to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the creation of 580 new jobs across Scotland.

On a visit to life sciences company Biopta, First Minister Alex Salmond said that the new allocations from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will strengthen Scotland's economic recovery by investing in programmes that offer advice and assistance to new and small businesses across Scotland.

The growth of Biopta – a company that tests the efficacy and safety of drugs for the pharmaceutical industry using ethically sourced human tissue – has been aided by previous investments from the ERDF supported Scottish Enterprise Scottish Co-investment Fund. Biopta was spun out of Glasgow Caledonian University in 2002 and currently employs 18 staff in the West of Scotland.

The projects receiving a share of the £4.7 million funding allocation are:

• Support for Young Innovative Enterprises (YIE) – the Scottish Enterprise project aims to assist 15 young technology companies with selective grant funding. The project will make use of specialists and seasoned entrepreneurs with industry expertise to advise clients on management teams, fund raising and access to markets
   
• Advanced Entrepreneurial & Pre Incubation Support – the project will provide entrepreneurial training and support by linking businesses to universities that can assist their development. The project will aim to provide financial support to 87 enterprises potentially resulting in 352 new business start ups
   
• Enterprise@DC – the Dundee College programme will work to increase the number of people from the city's poorest communities to explore, and to start, their own businesses through providing facilities and expertise in areas such as IT, e-commerce and marketing. It aims to create 150 new business start ups and increase the turnover of supported enterprises 

First Minister Alex Salmond said:

"The Scottish Government is using all economic levers at our command to support businesses through the downturn and towards sustainable economic growth.

"This announcement of more than #4.7 million European funding will deliver quality support and advice services for business growth which will benefit around 500 companies and potentially create 580 jobs. The three funded projects will focus on encouraging and developing ambitious entrepreneurs and businesses, and I am confident that they will help to support the creation of many more Scottish success stories, like Biopta, which benefited from an ERDF funded initiative.

"It is important that our small businesses have access to support and advice, particularly in this challenging economic climate, so that they can realise their potential, seize opportunities, expand, invest and contribute to Scotland's sustainable economic growth.

"This new investment will build on the package of measures successfully introduced by this Government to support enterprise across Scotland. Our Small Business Bonus will save small businesses an estimated #100 million this year and our comprehensive apprenticeship support programme is working to ensure that Scotland's workforce has the skills and experience required to secure investment and deliver success.

"Our Economic Recovery Plan has directly supported up to 15,000 jobs in the Scottish economy and this further investment will build on our efforts towards ensuring entrepreneurs and businesses across Scotland can realise their ambitions, achieve their potential and play a key role in Scotland's future economic success."

CEO of Biopta, Dr David Bunton, said:

"Biopta has previously received support through the Co-Investment fund, most recently in 2008. This funding was critical to the growth of the company in three key areas: development and production of our unique perfusion myograph instrument, which now creates revenue as part of our service business; expansion of our established tissue supply network throughout the UK and beyond; and creation of an internal Research and Development team, focussed on developing new services for our clients. We are delighted this support will continue to be available to other small businesses."

Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, Lena Wilson, said:

"Scotland has an excellent track record of attracting European funding to develop new projects and support young and ambitious Scottish companies like Biopta. The additional funding announced today will help deliver even more support to companies across Scotland to grow their businesses and become more competitive."

Advanced Entrepreneurial & Pre Incubation Support and Support for Young Innovative Enterprises (YIE) are schemes that will be available to businesses in local authority areas in the Lower and Uplands Scotland (LUPS) area: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll & Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Dundee City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh City, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish borders, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire, and West Lothian.

Biopta Ltd is a privately owned life sciences company, which was spun out of Glasgow Caledonian University in 2002 by Dr David Bunton and Prof Chris Hillier. Biopta has benefitted from the support of the Scottish Co-Investment Fund through matched investment from Braveheart Investment Group and TriCap. The efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals is tested at Biopta's specialist laboratories using ethically donated human tissue. Biopta now counts 8 of the top 10 major pharmaceutical companies as its clients and achieves over 70 per cent of its service revenues from outside the UK.

A college in Oxford is helping to reduce unemployment in the county thanks to an innovative approach to finding jobs for students and the long-term unemployed.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College’s Jobfinder scheme is matching its own apprentices with employers and helping to find jobs for those out of work who have received training from the college, especially so for those out of work for more than six months. This is thanks to funding from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

“I wouldn’t want to refer to the project as a recruitment agency but if you think about the services offered by the very best agencies, we have similar aims,” explains Neil Edwards, the college’s business enterprise manager.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley has a strong track record in delivering high quality vocational skills training, holds the Learning and Skills Council’s sought-after Training Quality Standard certification and served more than 500 employers of all sizes last year, including BMW and Oxford’s University’s colleges.

But as unemployment has risen it has proven harder to find would-be apprentices sustainable employment to allow them to continue to take advantage of college-based apprenticeship training. This has prompted a rethink on how the college can better help match aspiring apprentices to employers.

“We have around 50 young people already training on Programme-Led Pathway Apprenticeships, mainly in the motor vehicle and plumbing sectors” said Mr Edwards, “They are our priority group because we have to match them with employers by September to enable them to continue training. But we are also working with Job Centre Plus clients from across the county, running a wide range of short courses for people out of work.”

“We thought about how we might be able to more actively match these people with the employers we serve.”

The answer is to recruit two people – with the help of LSIS funding – to conduct in-depth interviews with all the candidates trained by the college and then take the resulting profiles to employer groups through one-to-one meetings and events so that aspirations are precisely matched.

The college is also offering recruitment support, such as interview tips and CV preparation, for these candidates, who may be entering the job market for the first time.

In an effort to win over employers to the scheme the college will not make any charge for placing candidates with employers – at least whilst it has LSIS funding – and the support offered will not end when a candidate is matched to an employer as Mr Edwards explained: “If a Job Centre Plus client has come to us for a short course in something like security training, once we have matched them with a new employer we can then offer them a longer-term NVQ qualification in the subject. It is all about how we can offer support for candidates and employers at every stage of the process.”

The scheme is one of several awarded to innovative schemes by LSIS in the first round of bidding for its flexibility and innovation fund. The fund is aimed at fostering innovative ideas which can produce results to benefit the learning and skills sector nationwide.

Jobfinder is already up and running with college HR advisor Nicky Harris kicking-off the candidate interview process until the two new arrivals are in post by the end of this month. As well as paying wages for the new recruits the £90,000 provided by LSIS will help publicise the scheme and subsidise some of the additional college costs to get the scheme operational.

“We’re confident that this scheme will make a difference and we will happily share our experience of what worked well and also any operational concerns, so that similar organisations can replicate it across the country,” added Mr Edwards.

LSIS recently opened the second round of bidding for the flexibility and innovation fund, for more details visit www.lsis.org.uk