Enterprise Steps Project Summative Assessment

The Centre for Innovation and Partnership (CIPs) was established by Newham College of Further Education in 1997 to lead on activities to support the local and regional regeneration agenda, and to open up new ways of training and supporting individuals and businesses. Central to all of this is CIPs ability to establish strong partnerships and secure external funding. In the current year, CIPs has successfully secured over £5m of external funding which has created a major capacity for partnerships, collaboration, development, and innovation projects. The College supports businesses across a wide range of sectors, and specialises in support to business start-ups, creative businesses, and businesses owned by women and people from Black and Asian Minority Ethnic communities. The Enterprise Steps project is led by Newham College with London South Bank University and Enterprise for London. The project identifies and engages pre-trade and early stage SMEs pan-London to create new enterprises and help existing enterprises survive, prosper and grow. The Enterprise Steps model provides intensive start up and training support for new enterprises, which then move onto the business support and mentoring programme. We also have a third strand which identifies and provides intensive support to enterprises with high growth potential. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Union's Structural Funds which is used to tackle regional disparities across Europe. ERDF helps to stimulate economic development and growth; it provides support to businesses, encourages innovation and supports regeneration. Newham College of Further Education seeks to contract a project evaluator for the 'Enterprise Steps' project, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in London. The opportunity is to conduct an external project summative assessment of all project activity and to inform improvements in the way the project is delivered until its closure in September 2019. The successful supplier will be responsible for a full impact evaluation report that responds to the requirements of both the GLA and the project partners and which follows the ERDF Project Summative Assessment Guidance.