Prosperity Hub: Powering Small Businesses in the North East of England

Say hello to The Prosperity Hub

Helping people succeed in business goes beyond just our products. Communities around the world are facing challenges every day, from equal opportunities to climate change. Many are left unprepared for today’s job market, but there’s hope. We’re on a mission to help communities thrive – through job opportunities, preparing people for future careers, and providing small business support.

That’s why we’re excited to bring you the UK’s first Prosperity Hub. A new programme dedicated to communities in need, helping them grow by giving them the tools to get going and build successful small businesses. From physical and virtual call centres, to educational institutions and small business success centres, the programme creates financial opportunities to inspire communities around the world.

Our first stop in Europe? The North East of England. Currently one of the most economically deprived regions in the UK, with the highest unemployment rate and the lowest number of small businesses, this was one of the hardest hit for job losses due to COVID-19.  

We’re here to help turn that around. Together with Concentrix Newcastle, home to our existing customer success centre, we are on a journey to power prosperity in the North East. 

Let’s take a look at how, through the programs and initiatives that underpin the Prosperity Hub: Job Creation, Job Readiness, Small Business Success and Sustainability. 

Job creation

Talented people are everywhere, but opportunities often aren’t. We’re here to help change that. We’ve partnered with leading customer-success companies to match talented people with all kinds of jobs. Some can even be done virtually, making getting back on track accessible for everyone.

It’s a global programme that’s already proved successful, creating more than 6,500 seasonal and year-round remote jobs since July 2021 alone. We see huge potential in creating opportunities in the North East and believe we can really make a difference.

Job readiness

So, what about students and their future careers? Well, they’re just as important. The programme is designed to help, bringing real-world tools into the classroom to teach personal finance and entrepreneurship to students from communities like Newcastle, preparing them for the working world. Here’s just a few of the ways we’re providing support:

• We work closely with educators, offering direct and partner-driven training programmes like Design for Delight, a customer-focused innovation curriculum that supports The Excelsior Academy with its challenges.

• We partner with Tyne Coast College, offering QuickBooks training for bookkeeping and accountancy classes for students and teachers. We’ve also added a Financial Literacy Foundations course where students and teachers can take self paced training courses on Financial Literacy topics such as savings, budgeting, credit & debt.

• We also guide students through the world of digital with the School District Programme. It focuses on districts more in need than others, with content and professional development programmes offered directly or through our partners.

The Job Readiness programme is designed to help students flourish, and we support colleges and schools that truly share our mission. As James Andriot, principal at The Excelsior Academy says:

“This is about future-proofing. Taking steps now to make sure the youth of today can look forward to an exciting, inspiring tomorrow. Intuit’s Prosperity Hub programme does just that. They’re all in, sharing our ethos of being a community which creates and builds aspiration through high quality care and education”.

Small business success

Many small businesses need support following the pandemic, from staff shortages to supply chain issues. Now, they’re in safe hands, with upskilling and materials to help them thrive in the newly-transformed digital economy. 

We’ve teamed up with North East Growth Hub and North East England Chamber of Commerce (NEECC) and we look forward to offering exciting, engaging training programmes — from cash flow management, to digitisation and design thinking. As well as that we will be sponsoring a number of events with the NEECC across the year, such as the NE Large Business Summit and the Inspiring Females Conference, to spread awareness of our mission and to connect with savvy business owners in the region.

Sustainability

Climate change continues to have a huge effect on business opportunities for communities. We're proud of our ongoing work to address climate change so we're keen to help others on their sustainability journey. With small actions here and there, we can all have a big and positive impact on our planet’s future.

Like making more sustainable choices. We provide better access to solutions that may normally be out of reach. There are plenty of programmes and sustainability tutorials for employees, customers, and communities to get involved in at a local level — from litter picking, to reforestation tree planting and even a BambuuBrush® toothbrush give-away to 1,500 pupils from the Excelsior Academy. Tommie Eaton, founder of Bambuu Brush says: 

“It was a privilege to educate Excelsior Academy’s primary school children on the importance of sustainability. In order for families and growing teens to make meaningful change through personal habits, children have to learn about sustainability from an early age. Our educational day was light-hearted and informative – the children were rewarded for their time at the workshop with bamboo toothbrushes and had fun dressing up in QuickBooks gear for our litter clean up.” 

There’s also our Climate Action Marketplace, which supports small businesses in reducing their carbon footprint. Following a successful Climate Hub pledge programme in 2021, it’s now about turning that commitment into action. Helping small businesses find more long-term sustainable choices that will save them time and money, and help them grow. This was demonstrated in our partnership with Octopus energy, who are committed to helping businesses be more sustainable by using ‘technology to make the green revolution more affordable’. As a result of this partnership, a 25MT of CO2 was reduced.

Looking to the future

Supporting communities through the Prosperity Hub is a key part of our company strategy. Driving positive change is at the centre of everything we do — from refreshing our internal values, to speaking up for policies that empower communities in need.

So, where next? North East England is still one of the most economically challenged parts of the UK, so we’ll be looking to support more communities like Newcastle, bringing them everything the programme has to offer.

For Newcastle, the future’s looking bright. Exciting times are ahead and we’re dedicated to driving real change by September 2023. That includes:

• Creating 50 new jobs through the Job Creation programme

• Helping 8,500 people get geared up for working life or starting a small business with Job Readiness

• Reduce carbon emissions by 500 metric tonnes through our sustainability partnerships and climate change activations

We’ve made great progress so far, but there’s still a long way to go. Real progress takes time, and we’re committed to making that happen.

Feel you’re better informed about Intuit’s prosperity hubs? The QuickBooks blog covers a wide range of business-related topics – it’s all part of our mission to help small businesses grow.

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