Growbiz success at Mentoring Awards

Growbiz's award-winning business mentoring programme has become the first in Scotland to achieve the Scottish Mentoring Network Quality Standard.

The news was announced at the annual Scottish Mentoring Network conference, held on 6 November 2018 in Edinburgh.

GrowBiz provides a community-based enterprise support service in rural Perthshire. Until recently, it worked mainly in the Eastern and Highland areas. Now, with funding support from Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER, the service is available across Perthshire. Services are free and confidential, and include one-to-one meetings, peer support, learning sessions, mentoring, training and networking opportunities.

To achieve the Scottish Mentoring Network Quality Standard, an organisation must demonstrate that its commitment to delivering a service meets the expectations and requirements of those taking part in its mentoring programme and that the initiative is applying good practice to all aspects of its work.

The GrowBiz mentoring programme - which has gone from strength to strength since it was first established in 2014 - is the first enterprise-focussed scheme to be accredited in Scotland.

Alan Garratt is the mentoring programme co-ordinator and also an enterprise facilitator for GrowBiz.

He said:

"It is absolutely fantastic to have achieved this quality award from the Scottish Mentoring Network and we are over the moon that the hard work and dedication of the mentoring team at GrowBiz and that of all our volunteer mentors has been recognised.

"The GrowBiz mentoring programme is a network of trained mentors who give their time to encourage, motivate and support local enterprises.

"It provides an opportunity for all participants of the programme to discuss and work out what they would like to achieve in a supportive, safe and confidential environment. All the individual efforts by the mentoring team and volunteers have a huge impact on the rural economy."

GrowBiz CEO Jackie Brierton said:

"GrowBiz is helping to increase employment in rural Perthshire, thereby enhancing the rural economy, and the mentoring programme, which currently has over 70 participants, plays an integral part in that.

"It’s a win-win situation for everyone. The mentees benefit from being challenged, from focussing and prioritising, and developing new personal skills and abilities, while the mentors enjoy the challenge and opportunity to guide, encourage and empower mentees from many different enterprises.

"To have gained this official accreditation from the Scottish Mentoring Network is a fabulous achievement and testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone involved and we are very proud to be the first business mentoring programme in Scotland to be accredited."

Iain Matheson, the vice-chair of the Rural Perth and Kinross LEADER Action Group which funds the Enterprising Rural Perthshire project that runs the mentoring programme also welcomed the news.

He said:

"Rural Perth and Kinross LEADER are thrilled to have been able to support the Enterprising Rural Perthshire project. The support and mentoring they offer is invaluable to start-up, micro and small businesses.

"It’s fantastic to see the hard work put in by the mentoring team being recognised, this project perfectly demonstrates the ethos of the LEADER Programme, congratulations to all involved!"

Also at the conference, GrowBiz mentoring coordinator and enterprise facilitator Clair Smith received a highly commended award in the employee category and GrowBiz client Emma Arblaster was highly commended in the mentor category. 

Visit the GrowBiz website to find out more.