If your application is successful, we will meet you to talk about your business needs and what you need in order to help it, and you, develop. This meeting will normally last one to one and a half hours.

The questions we want to answer are:

• What are your critical business needs?
• What training will address this/these needs?
• How will this training impact upon business performance?

Our discussions will include:
• The current scope and direction of your business
• Current successes and weaknesses
• Any plans you have for future development
• Immediate training needs
• Longer-term developmental training needs

We will also work with you to identify some targets to achieve once you have undertaken training or participated in other aspects of the CIBIP programme. The targets should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.

Following the meeting, we will draft a training needs anaysis which you can comment on before it is finalised.

If immediate training needs have been identified, we will make initial suggestions and help you find appropriate training providers and apply for funding from CIBIP.

Examples of the training undertaken by some of our early applicants include webpage design, marketing and publicity, accounts, and art form development.

Funding for training

CIBIP is able to provide funding to cover some of the costs of training activities such as external courses. You will need to make an application on forms obtainable from Screen East or Theatre Resource and provide details of the courses. Once approved enrolment can take place.

Many providers will be willing to invoice CIBIP directly for the cost of the courses. Where this is not the case, we can arrange payment or reimbursement by some other means.

If we have previously received several applications relating to the same geographical or creative area we may be unable to admit you into CIBIP at this stage. However, you may still be eligible to take advantage of other aspects of the programme, e.g. the mentoring training scheme, and training and networking events.

Follow-up

We will follow up progress after the initial training needs analysis session and throughout the process of training, providing support as necessary. You will be asked to keep a simple record of time spent participating in CIBIP activities, both in attending training programmes and in using new skills that you have gained in your workplace. We will need to evaluate how effective the support and training has been in helping your business improve.