St Albans City and District Council organises three popular large scale street events a year in the centre of St Albans. They provide free entertainment and bring people together to celebrate our beautiful City and District and showcase the city’s retail and hospitality offering. Your sponsorship would help the Council to deliver even more activities, more entertainment and more fun for the whole family. It could also give you access to an audience of around 10,000 people per event to highlight a product or service, as well as demonstrating your commitment to the community.

The next event is St Albans 'Feastival' on Sunday 22 September in St Peter’s Street – come along and see what it’s all about, and if you like what you see, contact the Events team at St Albans City and District Council to find out about sponsorship opportunities.

Businesses have an important role to play in ensuring a sustainable future for St Albans District. There are some great examples of businesses across the District building sustainable practice into their everyday activities. St Albans Greener Together would like to support other organisations to take this step and help those already engaged with this important work. St Albans Greener Together is a new network of inspired individuals and organisations working to create a more sustainable and healthy District. We are launching a Net Zero Fund that will provide grants for not-for-profit organisations, community groups and small to medium sized enterprises to deliver sustainability projects that will benefit St Albans District, linked to energy and transport.

Applicants can apply for funding between £2,000 and £20,000. The fund is open for applications this September. To read more about the criteria and application process visit: https://stalbansgreenertogether.org/community-fund/ and to join St Albans Greener Together see: https://stalbansgreenertogether.org/join-us/.

STANTA have teamed up with St Albans District Chamber of Commerce and Communities 1st to deliver an environment and sustainability event for local businesses in the St Albans District. You are invited to come along with your staff and enjoy two hours in the outdoors cleaning up the Beech Bottom Dyke, a local site of significant historical interest.

When: Wednesday 18 September 2024, 10:00am – 12:00noon

Where: Beech Bottom Dyke, St Albans

After the walk, meet up for tea and coffee and networking at STANTA Business Centre.

If you’d like to take part, book your place at the link below:

4 October 9:00am – 3:00pm at the Enterprise Hub, University of Hertfordshire

Are you looking to harness the power of artificial intelligence to take your business to new heights?

This workshop is designed to help business owners understand how to effectively integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their business and cover both practical applications and any associates risks and mitigation strategies.

The workshop is in partnership with industry experts Wagada Digital, Redway HR and Live Chat Factory.

For further information and to book your free place, visit the Herts Growth Hub website:

Hertfordshire Futures, the new name for Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, is developing a new Economic Strategy for the next 5-10 years. Residents and business are encouraged to have their say about the county's future priorities by taking part in this short survey.

See https://www.hertfordshirefutures.co.uk/about-us/2024-economic-strategy-page/ for more information or go directly to the survey via the link below.

Recruitment and retention is important to all local businesses, and you can receive support from Jobcentre Plus. They provide recruitment, advice and tailored service supporting employers to grow and develop their business.

Find out more by visiting www.gov.uk/jobcentre-plus-help-for-recruiters or by contacting our local Jobcentre Plus Employer Adviser - Deborah.dyer1@dwp.gov.uk

Stunning new Grade A commercial offices are available from 1,600 sq ft – 54,766 sq ft in two prominent buildings within Jubilee Square, a St Albans City Centre development on Victoria Street and Bricket Road, St Albans.

Visit the website at https://www.jubileesquarestalbans.co.uk/main/ for details.  

The STANTA Business Centre has a first-floor office available. With utilities included and easy access to major transport links, features include: 24 hour access, FREE onsite parking, FREE meeting room use, FREE access to a STANTA Business Adviser, all-inclusive monthly licence, air conditioning, security alarm and intercom and kitchenette.

Find out more via the web link below or call 01727 837760 to book a viewing.

Discover how apprenticeships can support the skills development of your organisation.

Oaklands seeks to collaborate with employers of all sizes to create exceptional apprenticeship opportunities and programmes that benefit both businesses and apprentices, including those already in their chosen career and looking to upskill.

New apprenticeships from Oaklands are aligned to growth sectors with programmes ranging from entry to higher education level. Sectors include agriculture and environment, construction and engineering, professional, education, and service sectors, including hair, beauty, and early years.

Find out more and submit an enquiry via the Oaklands College website https://www.oaklands.ac.uk/study/apprenticeships/employers/ or email apprenticeships@oaklands.ac.uk.

The Council is offering a mentoring service to help food businesses comply fully with Food Safety Legislation and to enable them to increase their food hygiene ratings.

The Council is the only local authority in Hertfordshire to run a mentoring scheme for food businesses. It is tailored to meet the specific requirements of a business whether it is a takeaway van, a restaurant or a pub and help it achieve the highest possible standards. The advice ranges from the layout and structure of the premises, process controls, staff training, cleaning, avoidance of cross contamination to the need for a documented food safety management system.

The scheme also advises businesses to help them achieve a high hygiene rating.  

Further details about the scheme, including charges, are available from the food, health and safety team at fhrs@stalbans.gov.uk and on the Council’s website here.

Step2Skills adult community learning and employment support service provides opportunities for adults in Hertfordshire to get involved in learning and employment within the community.

They aim to work with people who face barriers to education and employment such as low skills, learning or physical disabilities and mental health issues.

Skills and workforce development

• Multiply - fully funded skills training including digital skills, customer services etc.
• Business Learning Hubs (free courses) – Hemel, Stevenage, Hatfield and Broxbourne
• Access to English, maths and ESOL support

If you are looking for some fully funded or subsidised training for staff, speak to Step2Skills to find out what is available and how it can be customised.

Free Recruitment Support

Step2Skills work with employers to help match vacancies to local candidates and advise you on how to easily remove some barriers to employment.

• Job matching service – 90% of participants are still in employment after 6 months of starting their jobs
• Disability Confidence & Access to Work, funding grants
• Career insight webinars – opportunity for employers to promote their sector, offer their expertise, and share what knowledge, skills and qualifications are needed to work in their sector
• Signposting including Healthy Workplaces – wellbeing programme for SMEs

Contact Georgina De-Allie, Employer Liaison Officer via LinkedIn or email to arrange a short MS Teams call on employers@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Direct Telephone: 07580 744 827

Hertfordshire’s film studios and production companies offer opportunities for local suppliers to fulfil a wide range of needs to enable film and TV production to happen from specialist accountants and HR consultants to those engaged in catering, equipment hire, costume and make up, visual effects.   

Find out more about opportunities through the Create Growth Programme at https://www.hertfordshirelep.com/business/create-growth-programme/ and register interest via the link below:

New report The Future of the High Street by the FSB has recently been published and sets out a plan to transform high streets across the East of England. It includes  a package of new measures to help small businesses to help the East of England’s small firms thrive and grow.

Read the report at the link below:

Better Business For All (BBfA) has a wide range of regulatory support documents available on its BBfA toolkit.

All the advice is free to access and download by any business or regulator is Hertfordshire. The toolkit is hosted by Hertfordshire Futures and available here: www.hertfordshirelep.com/business/better-business-for-all.

Are there areas of regulation that it would be useful to have a guide about? Please email bbfa@hertfordshire.gov.uk.

Businesses, voluntary organisations and the public can now complete the updated ACT Awareness e-Learning on the ProtectUK learning platform.

The award-winning e-Learning provides an introduction to counter terrorism across seven modules, including suspicious activity and items, marauding attackers and bomb threats.

The course contains refreshed modules, has improved accessibility, and is now optimised for completion on a mobile device.

The ACT Awareness e-Learning takes approximately one hour to complete and can be paused to suit individual needs. Visit the Learning tab and register as a ProtectUK user to access.

Hertfordshire Futures has secured funding to help bridge skills gaps across Hertfordshire.

Skills Bootcamps are intensive, short-term training programmes, designed to help develop new skills that are in demand by employers. They cover key priority sectors such as digital, technical, green technologies, health, and social care, and more. These flexible courses have 60 hours of guided learning, designed to upskill individuals.  Hertfordshire employers have been putting forward their own employees and benefitting from the new skills they’ve gained to support their businesses.

Popular with businesses have been the Sustainable Business Manager bootcamp, the Carbon Reporting Manager bootcamp, Digital Marketing bootcamp and the Mental Health Champion bootcamp.

To make use of these expertly designed bootcamps, employers need to make a small contribution to the cost of the programme (10% if they have less than 250 employees and 30% if they have more than 250 employees). 

Go to https://www.hopinto.co.uk/skills-bootcamps/ to find out more or contact one of their Skills Specialists by emailing hopinto@hertfordshirefutures.co.uk  

The Government is currently consulting on a revised National Planning Policy Framework which, should it be implemented fully, will have major implications for Local Plans, the blueprints for future development in local areas. 

Local Plans set out the policies underpinning development and the sites where future homes, schools, businesses, health facilities and parks will be permitted. St Albans City and District Council planned to submit its draft Local Plan by April 2025. However, in light of the proposed changes to national planning law, the Council now plans to bring the timing forward.