Team Upskilling Programme
All our UKSPF fully funded, one, and half day courses are detailed below. Each course is being run in at least one market town in Shropshire, on different dates. For specific details, and to check eligibility, please click on the relevant link to express your interest and a member of the team will get back to you soon.
Please note: Chamber membership is not required to be eligible, and no Chamber member benefits will be used for this training. This funding is administrated by Shropshire Council, through the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). Shropshire Chamber of Commerce is delivering the Upskilling Programme funded by UKSPF, and therefor, have no control over eligibility criteria or funding allocation.
Am I eligible for training? / Want to apply? Express your Interest
The goal of any project manager is to deliver projects on time, to scope and within budget. PRINCE2® guides you through the stages of a project's lifecycle, bringing structure and a common language to your projects. It represents the "how to" of project management: it is flexible, scalable, and can be tailored to meet your specific requirements This fully funded 5-day course (including final exam) will provide you with a globally recognised certification.
PRINCE2® is a project management methodology of 7s. The principles, practices and processes all follow this model. It is based upon the tried and tested experience of project management practitioners around the world, and provides the practices, principles, and processes to deliver successful projects of any size and complexity.
globally recognised certification
1,000,000+ professionals
a range of roles and sectors
18 languages
150+ countries
The Benefits
Step-by-step guidance to manage cost, time, quality, scope, benefits, and risk.
Flexible and adaptable method that can be tailored to any project, regardless of size, purpose, or industry.
Internationally recognised vocational certification that enables success in your role
Works with DevOps, Lean, and Agile.
PRINCE2® 7th Edition Foundation - Awarding body PeopleCert
The Foundation is an introduction into the PRINCE2® principles, themes, and processes. PRINCE2® Foundation provides the theoretical knowledge of how to plan, manage and deliver projects from start to finish.
PRINCE2® 7th Edition Practitioner - Awarding body PeopleCert
The PRINCE2® Practitioner course aims to confirm that you have sufficient knowledge and understanding to apply and tailor the PRINCE2® method within a range of project environments. PRINCE2® Practitioner extends the knowledge acquired at Foundation level to enable you to apply and tailor the method in a live working environment
What You Will Learn
PRINCE2® Principles
The first learning outcome is to apply the PRINCE2® principles in context. This includes understanding how to apply the 7 principles of PRINCE2® in different project scenarios and how to adapt them to suit the specific needs of a project.
PRINCE2® Themes
The second learning outcome is to apply and tailor relevant aspects of PRINCE2® themes in context. This includes understanding how to apply the 7 themes of PRINCE2® in different project scenarios and adapting them to suit the specific needs of a project.
PRINCE2® Processes
The third learning outcome is to apply (and tailor) relevant aspects of PRINCE2® processes in context. This includes understanding how to apply the 7 processes of PRINCE2® in different situations.

This fully funded course combines the leadership expertise of Inspired Mindset Ltd with the fantastic venue and festive hospitality at Alderford Lake, Whitchurch, to provide you with a memorable, interactive, and developmental learning experience within a beautiful lakeside setting. As we approach Christmas and the end of the calendar year, you will have the opportunity to reflect on yourself as a leader as you prepare for success in the new year ahead.
What you can expect:
This course is hands-on and engaging, meaning you can learn from your experiences from the day and apply what you learn instantly within a safe space. Activities are specifically designed to focus on your leadership skills. You can expect to experience a day full of activities, discussion, and reflection. You will have the opportunity to think about your leadership strengths and consider your personal ongoing leadership development. A breakfast, festive buffet lunch and sweet treats are provided throughout the day!
Who is this course suitable for?
This course is suitable for leaders and managers at any level of your organisation, whether you are a business owner, senior leader, middle manager or if you are recognised as future leadership talent.
Key Skill Focuses:
On the day, your facilitator will be responsive to the needs and preferences of the attendees in your open group. However, it is expected that the core key skills will focus on:
- Awareness of self as leader
- Communication and interpersonal skills
- Problem solving
- Planning and strategy
- Resilience and Mindset
- Adaptability
- Coaching as leader
- Biases and perspectives
- Managing self
- Self-reflection
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Articulate what leadership excellence is, and the key skills required
- Have a greater awareness of your communication and leadership styles and the impact these have on yourself and others
- Have a greater awareness of biases, perspectives and preferences that can influence your leadership approach
- Gain further insights into your self-management, mindset and problem-solving approaches as a leader
- Explain the importance of reflection and self-review for personal development and come away with a personalised action plan for your leadership development.
What’s included?
- Facilitation of all activities with an Inspired Mindset facilitator
- Inspired Mindset branded pens and note paper
- Access to all Alderford lake area
- Teas and coffees in morning, afternoon and at lunch
- Festive Buffet lunch (Please notify us of allergies and intolerances in advance)
- Fresh water will be available in the training room all day
- Car parking at the venue
Group Sizes
There are only 8 spaces available per course
What you will need
This course will run in all weathers so please bring practical and comfy outdoor wear, rain jackets/coats and comfortable outdoor shoes suitable for outdoor wear that have good grip e.g. boots.

This fully funded 2-day NQual Endorsed ‘Finance for Non-Finance Managers’ 2-day training course will help demystify the financial jargon and teach you how to really understand finance. You will develop financial understanding, and recognise, appreciate, and understand how decisions can have a huge impact on the overall performance of a business.
This course will help you develop a deeper understanding of finance and its implications; it will ultimately increase your effectiveness and impact within your role. At the end of the course, you will have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to better understand finance. You will also gain the crucial skill of being able to read and interpret the financial information and reports that you are regularly presented with.
Course Content includes:
- Overview of finance: Introduction to finance and its role in business decision-making.
- Financial statements: Understanding the purpose, components, and preparation of financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. We will look at the key financial statements, so that you understand how they are developed and why they are important and will then use ratio analysis to interpret these financial statements.
- Financial analysis: Analysing financial statements using various techniques such as ratio analysis and trend analysis to identify financial trends and evaluate the financial health of the organisation.
- Budgeting and forecasting: Developing budgets and using forecasting techniques to make informed financial decisions.
- Cash Flow management: Understanding the concept of cash flow and its significance in business operations and developing strategies for effective cash flow management. Why is cash flow different from profit, we will spend time developing budgets and using those budgets to help in making business decisions.
- Investment appraisal: Evaluating investment opportunities and understanding the criteria used to make investment decisions.
- Case studies: Analysing real-world finance case studies and applying the concepts and techniques learned in the course to solve financial problems. We will also look at costing methods and the impact of discounting, before finishing with a review of the different ways of evaluating investments.
This course is suitable for anyone who:
- Is from a non-financial background who needs to understand financial information and/or make financial decisions in their roles.
- Is looking for a deeper understanding of financial concepts and how to communicate with financial professionals.
- Wants to become more confident in their ability to understand financial data and make informed decisions.
On completion, you will be awarded an NQual Endorsed Certificate of Completion.

This fully funded 3-day Effective Coaching course is designed for anyone looking to develop coaching skills that make a real impact. Whether you are a leader exploring coaching as a leadership style to develop your team, you want to become a coach, or if you are interested in fostering a coaching culture in your organisation, this course is for you!
Aims:
Ideal for beginners, this course provides the foundation to become a high-quality coach, or effectively use coaching skills in any setting for increased performance and productivity. The course is highly interactive, practical, and transformative, ensuring you gain hands-on experience.
Course Outline:
Day 1: The Fundamentals of Coaching Gain a solid understanding of non-directive coaching, including questioning techniques, coaching models, and the importance of clear, effective contracting.
Day 2: Being an Effective Coach Learn how to give and receive feedback, assess coaching effectiveness in the organisational context, and understand the return on investment and impact of your coaching on factors such as productivity and performance. More tools will be added to your toolkits throughout the day!
Day 3: The Coaching Relationship Delve into the crucial role of communication and relationship-building in successful coaching, learning techniques to foster trust and engagement. Understand how values and beliefs of individuals influence coaching outcomes and celebrate the end of your certified course.
By the end of the course, you will:
- Master essential non-directive coaching skills.
- Understand the similarities, differences and benefits of coaching compared to other interventions.
- Confidently use coaching and feedback models in your practice.
- Reflect on and evaluate your coaching effectiveness for ongoing development.
- Understand how coaching enhances leadership effectiveness, performance and productivity.
- Leave with practical tools and techniques to enhance your coaching conversations for increased performance and productivity.
All three dates of the course must be attended:
Day 1: Wednesday 18th December 2024
Day 2: Friday 10th January 2025
Day 3: Tuesday 28th January 2025
Once completed, each successful delegate will be issued with an NQual-Endorsed Effective Coaching Certificate of completion.

This course will help improve your time management skills and increase productivity.
It is designed to help you master essential time management techniques and how to use them.
Course outcomes:
- Understand and apply the concept and benefit of having SMART objectives.
- Describe the barriers that get in the way of effective time management.
- Understand the habits they have that might get in the way.
- Understand some basic principles and techniques for prioritising.
- Describe the importance of ‘doing what matters’
- Make better use of time.
You will learn how to set and apply SMART objectives to streamline your tasks, identify common barriers to effective time management, and recognise personal habits that may be holding you back. We will introduce you to basic prioritisation strategies, helping you focus on ‘doing what matters’.
By the end of this course, delivered by Craig Kershaw Leadership Development Ltd, you will have the tools you need to make the best use of your time and achieve more!

This course will provide you with a brief overview of the key concepts of Digital Marketing, including Search Engine Optimisation, social media, content marketing, PPC, and email marketing. It will no doubt give you a to-do list and will give you the skills, knowledge, and confidence to do more or improve what you currently do.
You will be provided with a brief overview of the key concepts covering the following areas:
- Website Optimisation and SEO
- Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: Choosing the right platforms, overview of the platforms; content creation; engagement strategies; running ads.
- Content Marketing and Blogging
- Email Marketing Basics
- Analytics and Measuring Success
- Practical Tips and Tools
- Local Case Studies
- Action Plan for Small Businesses
Kirsty Smallman, director of J&PR Ltd, has been an affiliated trainer for Shropshire Chamber of Commerce for nearly a decade and runs several PR and marketing courses with enthusiasm bringing the theory to life with practical examples. Kirsty likes to deep dive into your business and what you should be marketing.

This course provides a great overview of the main Microsoft 365 software and will give you the confidence to use computer software more. The course covers all Level 1 topics in Excel, Word and PowerPoint and gives a good solid grounding in using the software.
Excel Fundamentals
Overview of the Excel screen and navigating around worksheets. Examining different mouse pointer shapes and what they mean.
Using Standard Calculations:
Use standard formulas for basic calculations. Calculating row and column totals. Use a range of basic functions to average and return highest and lowest values.
Copy formulas using relative references.
Using Brackets in Calculations:
Understand the sequence of calculations, spreadsheet mathematics.
Working With Rows and Columns:
Adjusting column widths and row heights. Inserting and deleting rows and columns.
Hiding data in rows and columns. Using Freeze Panes on large worksheets.
Working With Worksheets:
Adding new worksheets. Moving worksheets, copying worksheets to another file
Renaming worksheets and use tab colours.
Enhancing The Appearance of Worksheets:
Apply a range of formatting techniques. Changing text style, size, colour and alignment. Applying a range of borders and shading and merging cells. Use text wrapping option. Using decimal places and percentage formats. Inserting images onto worksheets.
Creating Charts and Graphs:
Create a range of charts for data analysis both embedded with the data or displayed on separate worksheets. Apply a range of enhancements to charts to see information and trends clearly.
Preparing Worksheets for Printing or Email:
Use print preview to view worksheets. Make changes to the orientation and scaling to view and print data correctly. Use page break preview to view and print large worksheets and see all information correctly. Use Print Titles across multiple pages.
Word Fundamentals
Overview of the Word screen and examining the options available on the ribbons.
Examining different word processing views, scroll bars and zoom controls. Open documents.
Working within a document
Navigating around a multi-page document. Techniques for selecting text in a document. Use a range of editing techniques to change or delete text. Moving and copying text and paragraphs.
Formatting a document
Make changes to text style, size and colour. Changing line spacing. Applying text alignments. Using bullets and numbering.
Structuring document layout
Inserting page breaks into a document. Inserting page numbering. Using headers and footers in documents. Changing page orientation. Adjust margins in documents.
Inserting images into documents
Inserting images from the computer/laptop. Inserting images from the Internet. Controlling the position of images within a document and text wrapping.
Creating and formatting a table
Insert a table into a document. Adding text and adjusting column widths. Adjusting row heights within the table. Apply formatting to a table.
Document accuracy
Using the built-in spelling and grammar checkers. Quickly correcting misspelt words.
Ensure document grammar is correct.
Printing options
Viewing a document in print preview. Printing out specific pages. Using page setup to make adjustments.
PowerPoint Fundamentals
Overview of the PowerPoint screen and navigating around options on the ribbon tabs. Examining different ways of viewing a presentation.
Creating a Presentation
Create a range of slides using different types of slide layout, Title slide, Bulleted slide, Blank slide Table slide, SmartArt graphic slide etc.
Using Design Ideas and Templates
Applying a range of design templates. Use a range of options with Design Ideas.
Making changes to adjust template layouts.
Inserting Images onto Slides
Inserting images from your computer/laptop. Inserting images from the Internet. Moving and sizing images to suit needs. Using Design Ideas image layouts.
Applying a range of enhancements to text.
Changing Font Styles, Size and Colour. Applying different effects to text. Using text alignment options. Inserting text boxes onto slides.
Using Drawing Techniques
Drawing a range of different shapes. Moving and sizing shapes to meet needs.
Applying Transitions and Animation Effects
Applying transitional styles to slides. Apply a range of animation effects to different objects on slides.
Preparing your Presentation to meet the needs of the audience
Preparing to run a slide show. Reordering slides in a presentation. Printing slides and audience handouts. Making changes so that the content is clearly visible to the audience.

This course covers all topics from the Excel Level 1 course and around 75% of the Level 2 course. It is a full days comprehensive course covering most business needs in using Excel software.
You will learn how to:
- Create and edit standard formulas for basic calculations.
- Understand the sequence of calculations and when to use brackets in formulas.
- Use a range of Excel functions to quickly analyse data for business.
- Fix cell references on a worksheet.
- Enhance the appearance of worksheets to look more professional.
- Filter data on a worksheet.
- Create charts and graphs to analyse trends for business.
- Setup orientation, scaling of data and page breaking to suit business requirements.
- Build linked formulas across worksheets.
- Use conditional functions – IF statements.
- Create and use pivot tables for reporting business data.

A practising Employment Law Solicitor with 30 years’ experience will take you through the pitfalls of employment law and HR guidance.
On this course you will learn about:
Basics of Employment Law
Recruitment
- Drafting a job description and a person specification.
- Preparing, structuring, and running effective interviews
- Assessing evidence and make decisions
Contracts of Employment
- What is a contract of employment
- Written statement of main terms and conditions of employment
- Rules on pay, hours of work and holidays
- Understanding Employer contributions (NI, Pension)
- How to make changes to terms and conditions
- Policy and Procedure writing
- Data protection/processing data
Equality, diversity and Inclusion
- The types of discrimination and protected characteristics
Managing absence
- Dealing fairly and effectively with unauthorised absence, short term illness and long-term sickness, through an absence policy
Ending the employment relationship
- When is a dismissal fair and when might it be unfair?
- Ending a contract and rules on notice and notice pay
The Essentials of Payroll Processing, including:
- Understanding how tax codes and NI table letters are allocated
- Calculate gross pay, gross taxable pay, and gross NI’able pay
- Calculate the resulting gross to net calculation
- Understand how data is reported through Real Time Information (RTI)
- An overview of the legislative framework relating to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), The Apprenticeship Levy and Student Loans

This course not only meets professional needs to persuade and negotiate but also in one’s personal life, where these skills might be useful. It is designed to be enjoyable, as well as instructional and is full of highly interactive and stimulating exercises to illustrate each new learning point as it emerges. At the end of the course attendees will:
- Grow in confidence.
- Improve personal persuasion and negotiation skills.
- Understand theory and practice of persuasive techniques.
- Explore what makes a successful persuader and how to practise these skills.
- Get to grips with preparing to persuade by building trust and rapport.
- Understand what other people want.
- Be able to set clear objectives when seeking to persuade.
- Be able to apply the appropriate persuasive communication skills style, depending on the situation.
- Discover how to overcome resistance and deal with difficult counterparties.
- Be ok with not winning them all!
Expression of Interest Form
Interested in training? Complete the following form and one of our team will be in touch with you shortly after:

Shropshire Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Team Upskilling Project’ has received £373,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Shropshire Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Shropshire Skills Hub’ has received £384,000 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
For more information, visit UK Shared Prosperity Fund: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus