One of the Government’s main priorities is to support businesses via the Help to Grow Management training and development programme. The second programme is Help to Grow Digital which will be fully launched in the autumn.
The priority area for the scheme at the moment is in ensuring that the scheme has enough vendors in place. The scheme opened for applications from vendors on 29th July, and the deadline for applications is 8th September 2021, in advance of the scheme being ready to go live by late November.
The vendor application site and information on applying can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-to-grow-digital-apply-to-become-a-vendor
Help to Grow: Digital is a new 3-year, UK-wide scheme to help up to 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt digital technologies that are proven to increase firm-level productivity. It will offer free, impartial advice and guidance via an online platform to help SMEs identify their digital needs, and a voucher covering 50% of the costs of new-to-firm digital technology solutions, up to a value of £5000.
Vendors wishing to provide technology products through Help to Grow: Digital will be required to submit an application form providing details of their business and proposed products. Full details of the scheme including timings, eligibility criteria and application forms can be found here. Vendors will need to provide an application for each product they wish to submit for inclusion in Help to Grow: Digital.
Eligible vendors will:
- Have been registered in the UK with Companies House for at least 12 months.
- Be a producer and vendor of eligible Accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or e-Commerce technologies. Please note that we are not accepting third party sellers or partner networks for Wave 1 of the scheme.
- Be able to demonstrate that cyber security measures are in place.
- Be GDPR compliant.
The eligibility set out is applicable for Wave 1 of Help to Grow: Digital. The scheme is designed to evolve through successive waves over the three years.
In the meantime, the Help to Grow: Digital team would be happy to answer vendors’ questions in writing or on a call. Please feel free to email vendors.helptogrow@beis.gov.uk with your query, and we will be in touch as soon as possible.
