Birmingham-based learning and development consultancy Enploy is set to double its workforce after raising £150,000 of investment from London-based Jenson SEIS Fund.
Enploy teaches entrepreneurial thinking to help young people and companies drive success through its online diagnostic, e-learning platform and face-to-face workshops. The business helps students get ready for the world of work by helping them to think and act more entrepreneurially.
Through its entrepreneurial development programmes, Enploy helps companies foster innovation, and recruit, engage and retrain talent.
Focusing on six crucial areas of a 21st-century mindset, the programmes explore opportunity recognition, creative thinking, tolerance to risk, emotional intelligence, leadership and self-belief.
Jon Allen, founder and managing director of Enploy said: “It’s fantastic that we can scale our business more quickly with support from Jenson. Their investment will enable us to develop our product offering, sales and marketing.
"We aim to capitalize on the increasing global interest in entrepreneurship as a way to create positive change and impact. We are also looking forward to growing our relationship with key higher education and corporate partners.”
Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO at Innovation Birmingham said: “It’s a pleasure to see Enploy grow from strength to strength and develop its innovative approach to applying technology within an educational environment.
"We are proud to be supporting the development of the business through our Serendip Smart City Incubator, and are also delighted to integrate the platform within our Entrepreneurs for the Future (e4f) business support programme, which has been of great value to us and has demonstrated the potential influences that the solution can have on aspiring entrepreneurs.”
Having already launched programmes with Barclays, Birmingham City University and Innovation Birmingham, Enploy has experienced widespread critical acclaim for its digitally enabled programmes.
The learning and development consultancy was picked out from 60 businesses and awarded a space on the prestigious three-month PwC SCALE Midlands programme, which was launched in October 2017, facilitating connections between fast-growing start-ups and large established organisations.
Stuart Gilmore, Investment Director at Jenson Funding Partners said: “I’m delighted to be working with Enploy to help address the skills gap in the UK. I’ve seen first-hand the value in what they do and I’m looking forward to being part of their growth story over the coming years.”
Programmes typically run over three to six weeks with a blend of online and workshop activity. Learners leave each programme with tips, tricks and techniques to help them take initiative in the face of challenges, to be more proactive and better equipped to deliver creative solutions and recognise opportunities.
The Innovation Birmingham Campus brings together the public and private sectors, creating interfaces for people with ideas, people with technologies, people with expertise and experience, and people with money, to drive collaboration and innovation.
The Campus is a thriving cluster of tech companies, being home to over 160 companies, with specialisms including; coding, software, digital gaming and low carbon technologies.
The Campus has launched a new Serendip incubator that partners start-ups with national corporates. The available opportunities for start-ups and SMEs creates the best environment for growth, with over 162 ventures established in the past six years.
KEYWORDS:
EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY, FUNDING, INVESTMENT, GROWTH, BIRMINGHAM, MIDLANDS, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SKILLS