Tender for Consultants to Deliver a Step Up to Export Programme T3

Tender description

Ballymena Borough Council, in partnership with Antrim, Carrickfergus, Larne and Moyle Councils, has designed a two-year Step Up To Export Programme to improve the capability and capacity of 200 businesses in the North East Region to export for the first time, primarily to the GB and ROI markets. It aims to achieve this through a combination of awareness raising events, workshops and one-to-one mentoring. For those undertaking one-to-one mentoring, viable Export Development Plans and databases of potential sales leads will be prepared to enable implementation. This project is part funded by Invest Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund under the Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland. This project will target up to 200 SME’s from across the wider business base throughout the North East region that do not have an existing relationship with Invest NI businesses who are seeking to export for the first time. Participating businesses will typically be from the manufacturing and tradeable service sectors and capable of development and growth. All applicant businesses will be approved by Invest NI in the first instance before offers of acceptance are issued. Participants are likely to be locally focused firms currently selling into the NI market and this programme will help them consider their export potential using capability and capacity development. Ballymena Borough Council is the lead partner in this initiative and now invites tenders from suitably qualified organisations/individuals capable of delivering the programme on behalf of the cross-Council partnership.