Central Working has launched The Central Working Academy, a new support programme to provide start-up leaders with the innovative tools and guidance required to scale.
The programme’s pilot will provide senior teams behind established, high-growth start-ups with data-driven, long-term scaling strategies. It’s a resource that’s normally only available to the largest mature businesses.
Research from the Scaleup institute found that UK start-ups consider developing leadership and management skills as one of their top three priorities to achieve growth. It comes behind access to talent and finance markets.
How it works
The inaugural programme will run from Central Working’s tech hub based in Cambridge, launched in partnership with Trinity College Cambridge and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Central Working intends to roll out the programme to its UK-wide locations following a successful pilot.
The firm will also be using a purpose-built online platform from growth specialist, Cartezia. Each company’s current maturity will be assessed, looking at factors like current tech development, access to funding and customer profiling.
This analysis will determine how far the company can scale over the next 12 months. It will provide detailed, data-driven, step-by-step advice on how to reach that target. This includes specific recommendations on talent and funding acquisition, required improvements to commercial strategy and advised tweaks to a start-up’s business model.
The data will be used alongside ‘intensive sessions’ with coaches and mentors over the course of six weeks. Each company will come out with a personalised road map as well as access to the collaboration platform to continue business development 12 months after the programme finishes.
James Parton, managing director of Central Working’s Bradfield Centre, said that the traditional intervention support model relies heavily on the advice of mentors and coaches. While this is clearly still relevant, it’s an analogue solution in a digital world.
‘The Central Working Academy heralds the next generation of ‘intervention support, providing a programme rooted in research and experience and powered by an advanced data-driven online platform,’ he adds.
How can I apply to the Central Working Academy?
The programme is open to leadership teams of any growth company, applications for the inaugural Scale-Up Academy are open now. The deadline is 15th February and successful applicants will be notified by 18th February.
