SFEDI Diploma in Business and Enterprise Support at SCQF Level 8

The SFEDI Diploma in Business and Enterprise Support at SCQF Level 8 is a qualification specifically created for professionals working in the field of business and enterprise.

It has been designed to develop the capability of advisers, enabling them to deliver high impact interventions.

The Academy of Leadership & Management has been delivering the ‘Premier Adviser’ programme which leads to the award of the SFEDI Diploma since 2013.

In that time, we have helped advisers across Scotland to build their capability and accredit their practice. The course is practitioner led, designed and delivered by practising business advisers and the quality of the delivery team is widely recognised by both participants and the awarding body.

Practical in nature, it recognises the busy schedule of a business adviser and the needs of their employers. The six month programme has been designed by our team to provide a flexible, customised learning solution.

It is delivered through a unique blend of online learning, coaching and personal development. Assessment is workplace focussed through practical assignments and observation.

Programme structure and content

The course incorporates five core modules and an additional learning theme, designed around the units of the Diploma

1.Building Business Support Relationships

As a business support professional, the effectiveness of your interaction with your clients will ultimately come down to the quality of the relationship that forms between you.

That is to say, an adviser who has great knowledge of business will never maximise the impact of their advice unless they have the ability to build lasting and trusting relationships with their clients.

When these two skill sets merge, the conditions are created that will help the entrepreneur build a great business.

So what comes first, the provision of business advice or the building of relationships? The truth is that they build simultaneously.

In this theme we will explore how we build credibility and trust with clients and what we do when the relationship becomes flawed for some reason.

We will look closely at the various phases of relationship development. We will explore different styles of approach and how it is vital to manage client expectations and create clear lines of responsibility. Finally, we will discuss why strategic business development can only happen through the development of the people driving the business.

The aim of this theme is to help equip you with the skills required to build effective business support relationships with your clients.

You will learn about how to:

• interact effectively with clients
• use an effective mode of consulting
• direct clients to other services, where necessary
• make sure clients understand roles, responsibilities, processes and procedures
• encourage clients to develop their confidence, knowledge and skills

You will complete a number of learning activities which are designed to:

• enhance your understanding of business support relationships
• provide you with new thinking and ideas to develop your advisory approach and behaviours
• help you create impacts – for your clients, yourself, your organisation and the wider economy

The learning activities for this theme are spread over a period of five weeks. This will be supported by either a coaching tutorial or an action learning group meeting

Once you have completed these learning activities, you are required to complete your assignment (business case Study) for this theme.

2.Personal Professional Development

Becoming an effective business adviser is a continuous, never ending work in progress. It is one of those professions which is impossible to master completely, such is the diversity and complexity of a typical client base.

Entrepreneurship encompasses such a wide range of disciplines – from sales to finance, IP to IT, from HR to marketing and many more. Each of these subjects is a profession in its own right, yet clients have to develop a good working knowledge of each and look to the adviser to help them with their knowledge gaps and the process of learning.

The moment a client business is planned, it has a number of key variables and each of these contribute to the complex variances we see among our client base. Aside from sectoral differences, each of client has to be given guidance and direction based on a myriad of factors such as:

• how aggressive is the market at the level the business is pitched at?
• how experienced is the client and how are they likely to fare in this market?
• how will their personal circumstances impact upon the likelihood of success?

This, in effect, makes every client interaction unique. It follows therefore that no matter how long you work in this field, you will never ‘”see it all’, but what you will gather is an encyclopaedic knowledge of experiences, both good and bad, that you can draw upon to assist others. This is the real value that an experienced business adviser can bring to a client.

The aim of this theme is to help equip you with the skills to manage your continuing professional development.

You will learn about how to:

• ensure that you are meeting the ethical and professional standards expected of a business adviser
• plan and implement your own personal and professional development
• develop your own professional networks
• review and improve the business support services offered by yourself and your employer

The learning activities for this theme are spread over a period of five weeks. This will be supported by either a coaching tutorial or an action learning group meeting.

Once you have completed the learning activities, you will to complete your assignment (Personal Development Plan) for this theme.

3.Understanding Economic and Enterprise Development

Business advisers who operate directly or indirectly for local or national government are arguably the largest and most active grouping of professional business advisers in Scotland.

In Scotland the larger business support agencies are Scottish Enterprise, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, the local authorities and specifically, the Business Gateway.

Between them, these organisations have many hundreds of business support professionals working closely with new and existing businesses across the country.

However, the government’s motivation for intervention here lies much more broadly than with individual businesses. Its interest is in economic development and building communities, regions and the country on a sound economic platform.

While volunteer or private sector business advisers are focused on individual casework, the business adviser who is working on behalf of the public sector must also be mindful of the bigger picture and how the work that we do impacts on the wider economy.

The aim of this theme is to help you develop an understanding of different theories of economic development and the contribution of business and enterprise to economic development at national, regional and local levels.

You will learn about:

• theories of economic and enterprise development
• how success in economic development is measured
• the contribution of business and enterprise to national, regional and local economic development

The learning activities for this theme are spread over a period of five weeks. Once you have completed these learning activities, you are required to complete your assignment for this theme.

4.Understanding Business & Enterprise Support

Scotland has a vibrant support system (‘ecosystem’) that encourages and supports emerging and growing enterprises and entrepreneurs.

It can be strongly argued that Scotland benefits from a more mature and responsive ecosystem than many of our neighbours. There are literally hundreds of entrepreneurial support organisations in Scotland, ranging from small private enterprises to providers of large public sector programmes.

Commentators have sometimes described this ecosystem as being a ‘tangle’ of products and services that can prove quite challenging for even the most seasoned entrepreneur to navigate.

In this theme we will help you explore the ecosystem further to ensure that you have the knowledge you need to find the best sources of support for your clients

Its aim is to help you develop an understanding of business and enterprise support structures at a local, regional and national level and the ways of assessing the impact of business and enterprise support interventions.

You will learn about:

• what is meant by business and enterprise support
• the current structure of business and enterprise support networks in Scotland
• how the impact of business and enterprise support can be measured

This learning is designed to take five weeks. Once you have completed these learning activities, you are required to complete your assignment for this theme.

5.Delivering Business & Enterprise Support

The aim of the final theme is to help equip you with the skills to work with your clients to develop their businesses. You will learn more about how to:

• help clients review and plan how to develop their business
  •    help clients embrace change and put it into practice
  •    support clients when action planning to improve their businessWe will do this by exploring – the importance of the business plan, how to ‘separate’ the client from their business idea, client aspirations, the concept of continuous improvement, the importance of information and client financial literacy.

We will also look the importance of a business’s culture and reputation, the changing business environment and consumer behaviour, as well as look the external and internal risks facing the business and the role of the adviser: the coach, the facilitator and helping clients to achieve their potential.

This learning is designed to take five weeks. Once you have completed these learning activities, you are required to complete the Personal Development Plan you initiated during Theme Two.

You will be asked to demonstrate how you:

• work with clients to analyse their business and decide the way forward
• inspire them to decide how to develop their business
• evaluate their readiness to implement changes and help them develop the necessary commitment
• challenge your clients to evaluate and prioritise changes and put them into practice
• work with them to devise and evaluate an action plan for improving the performance and sustainability of their business
• show them how to implement and monitor their action plan and deal with any necessary contingencies or re-planning

Learning activities

Each module involves a number of learning activities including:

• a programme induction workshop
• on-line learning
• action learning groups
• an individual coaching session
• a one day Economic & Enterprise Development workshop
• a series of five practical assignments
• an observed client meeting, followed by feedback.

The course is now also approved by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Successful participants will gain free full membership of the Institute, with benefits including the post-nominal of MInstLM.