Video Transcript
” Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Worcestershire Growth Hub newsletter, which will also be our final update for 2025. I always find at the end of a calendar year to prompt some time for reflection, and 2025 is no different.
The Growth Hub have seen another busy year supporting Worcestershire businesses with their growth plans, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the businesses that have engaged and continue to engage with the team. Be that through any of the local funding programs, support schemes, business events or 1 to 1 meetings that have taken place this year. I’d also like to thank all of the team for their continued hard work in their efforts to continue to find the best support solutions out there for our businesses, as well as thanking our partners for their continued support and collaboration in providing tailored support, opportunities and investments, all in the name of supporting local economic growth, productivity and jobs across the county.
First up, this month I’d like to remind any manufacturing businesses that there are only five spaces left on the Elevate manufacturing program. This program is there to help manufacturers to remove barriers to growth, to boost productivity, and build some long term resilience. Alongside this Elevate growth, which is a broader offer to help established businesses increase revenue to improve customer engagement and build more resilient commercial operations, has a new cohort starting in January. So be sure to read the elevate articles in the newsletter to sign your business up.
Something a bit different up next, but that may well be of interest to your businesses. Worcestershire County Council, working with local bus operators, has reintroduced a special promotion to cap all single journey bus fares to just £1 throughout December. This may be of interest to you and your staff members based within the county, and you can find more about this out on our Growth Hub website.
Looking into 2026 next in early January we will be revealing the full event details for Worcestershire TechFest 2026. The two week Technology and Innovation Festival will be returning with a series of events around key topics and programs such as AI, cyber and defence, advanced manufacturing, health tech and much more. Follow the link in the newsletter to the TechFest website and watch this space. All will be unveiled as we return from the festive break.
Also in January, the Growth Hub will be launching a campaign around work experience as we look to engage more local employers to get involved. Work experience is a vital method of enabling our younger generations to experience the world of work. And with recruitment challenges facing many organisations and sectors. Getting involved and delivering meaningful work experience can help to build a talent pipeline to set your workforce up for the future. Stay tuned for that campaign in the new year.
And finally. I’d just like to flag that the Growth Hub team will be offline from midday on Wednesday, the 24th of December, until 9am on Friday, the 2nd of January as the team take their festive break. We’ll be back in action on the 2nd of January, so please reach out to the team to see how we can support your business.
Thank you for listening. Not just this time, but throughout 2025 too. It’s been another productive year for the Growth Hub supporting and a plethora of businesses, and we look forward to supporting even more businesses in 2026 and beyond. On behalf of the entire Growth Hub team, take care and we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing you in 2026.”
