We have led, supported and leveraged major activity for Oxfordshire’s businesses and communities in many ways. This has included:
Enterprise Oxfordshire Business and Enterprise Oxfordshire Skills:
- Supporting over 600 students to have an experience of the workplace, right across the academic year.
- Engaging over 850 parents and carers through a special apprenticeships webinar, held in February.
- Training over 50 employers to become more inclusive.
- Supporting over 300 young people with SEND to attend our Aspirations Fair.
- Supporting 944 businesses to meet their ambitions.
- Working with 235 pre-start-up businesses.
- Backing 382 start-up businesses on the next stage of their journey.
- Supporting 102 growing businesses.
- Partnering with 224 established businesses and supporting their future plans.
- Securing £1.7million of funding for Skills Bootcamps programme – addressing skills gaps identified by Oxfordshire employers.
Delivered in partnership with local councils and funded via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the West Oxfordshire and Cherwell Business Spark and Accelerator programmes provided real value to both pre-start entrepreneurs and established businesses via a mix of in-person and online sessions, providing new skills, inspiration and direction to many.
Key value included:
- Recruiting 43 entrepreneurs in West Oxfordshire to the Business Spark programme, providing 5 hours or support.
- Offering 5 hours of support to 118 established businesses from West Oxfordshire via the Business Accelerator programme.
- Welcoming 50 Cherwell-based participants to the Business Spark programme.
- Offering 1,028 hours of support to 115 Cherwell-based businesses via the Business Accelerator programme.
Our Social Contract Programme – funded initially by the Government’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund and now via the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, has continued to tackle barriers to employment and training across Oxfordshire.
Strategic partnerships with SOFEA, Aspire Oxford and Connectr have enabled tailored support and social value for underrepresented groups and those furthest from the labour market.
Key highlights delivered, up until March 2025, across the entirety of the programme include:
- At the end of the financial year, our activity securing apprenticeship levy funds from our larger businesses seeing them pledged to our SMEs had hit over £5million, initiating over 500 apprenticeship openings.
- Our No Limits programme successfully supporting 62 individuals across the year – 11 have progressed to employment and 40 are ready to move into work.
- No Limits also supported over the past year 36 individuals with digital devices, plus 3 with travel bursaries.
Capital programmes:
Our historical capital programme investments continue to transform Oxfordshire’s economic landscape and wider infrastructure.
Through a multi-million-pound programme, our collective impacts have reached the following impressive levels impacting such areas as clinical trial capacities, green skills development, vaccine manufacturing and rural connectivity.
Across six Getting Building Fund projects, by the end of 2025, we will have helped to:
- Create 619 new jobs
- Safeguard 256 jobs
- Assist 383 businesses
- Support 507 new learners
Via the Local Growth Fund programme, by the end of 2025, the projects will have collectively:
- Created 9,700 new jobs
- Supported 2,800 new learners
- Developed 1,800 new homes
- Enabled at least £850 million of further funding
Invest in Oxfordshire:
Our Invest in Oxfordshire service both championed the county and delivered significant inward investment results for the county during the past year, including:
- 21 foreign direct investment projects with 7 categorised as high-value ‘A’ band investments.
- £1.3 billion in total investment value achieved.
- 979 jobs supported overall.
Growth Hub Cluster:
We operate as part of a regional Growth Hub Cluster that between 2020 and 2025 (alongside the South Midlands, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and New Anglia) have collectively:
- Supported 92,719 businesses
- Delivered 178,563 hours of expert guidance
- Enabled 3,934 start-ups
- Created 6,970 jobs and safeguarded 6,093 more
- Generated exceptional value, attracting £24 of additional funding and delivering £35 of economic and social value for every £1 of core government investment
Take a look at the Growth Hub Cluster Impact Report to find out more.