Skills Development

training programme participants

‘Thank you so much for all these amazing sessions; you are both really charismatic communicators and I felt you truly and generously shared your expertise with all of us. This was by far the best training experience I had - and believe me I had a few in the past…”
Participant, ‘Sustain to Gain‘ 2007 training programme delivered for CIDA

Enabling people and organisations to better meet their potential
the hub has a reputation for delivering excellent quality, highly practical, fit-for-purpose skills development programmes. Each one we devise is different, based on participants’ needs. Sometimes the answer is a one-day training course, sometimes it takes a few sessions; in other circumstances, we might devise a mentoring programme, linked perhaps to a learning bursary fund.

Our programme to date has included the following:

fundraising and sponsorship
legal & financial essentials
business planning
artform/industry specific courses
festival and event management
digital strategy and production
international arts projects
the Olympics and the creative industries

We pride ourselves on developing fit for purpose solutions for a range of clients
We’re currently in the middle of delivering Music Connections, a music industry training and mentoring programme aimed at individual musician and small music businesses in Northamptonshire. Other recent programmes include the Sustain to Gain business planning course and the Time to Think festival and event logistics series, both commissioned by CIDA in East London. We’ve also delivered numerous fundraising and sponsorship courses, for organisations such as Southwark Council, Yorkshire Orchestral Promoters Network and Folk Arts England. And in South West England, we’ve run a programme for Arts Matrix aimed at helping creative practitioners and arts organisations to develop international arts projects. Last year we also developed and delivered a producer development programme as part of our own Phrased & Confused spoken word project.

We also encourage participants to use our online learning and networking resources, so that they can maximise the value of their relationship with us beyond the length of their individual programme.

We’re ‘do-ers’, as well as trainers and mentors
We can do all of this because, unlike a lot of other trainers, our trainers and mentors combine their training and mentoring experience with up-to-the-minute practical experience of working as event producers, fundraisers or project managers. They’re industry insiders keen to share their learning with others, who ensure that our programmes are relevant, useful and have a real learning legacy for all participants.