The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has awarded Sharing in Growth (SiG) a £6 million contract to give aerospace and advanced-manufacturing firms a new opportunity to learn best practice in productivity and competitiveness improvement, the aim being to enable them to compete more successfully in the global aerospace
market (www.sig-uk.org).

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: “Sharing in Growth continues to deliver excellent results — boosting productivity, creating high-quality jobs and helping UK companies to take a leading role in the global aerospace market.

This is an important programme for the UK’s aerospace sector, which is why we have extended our support for it.”

Established in 2013, the SiG programme has supported more than 60 companies with some 10,000 employees; and with the increased funding matched by private investment, 36-month programme places valued at over £300,000 per year are available to each beneficiary company (the picture shows Andrew Churchill from SiG beneficiary JJ Churchill).

The programme has already helped companies to secure contracts worth more than £4 billion, and the additional funding aims to net them a further £400 million.

Sharing in Growth CEO Andy Page said: “The increased government funding means that we can maintain our impetus, typically helping companies to address a 20% cost gap and achieve a 50% productivity improvement.

“We are well on target to safeguard 10,000 UK jobs by 2020.

“Sharing in Growth is effective because it has the unique scope and scale that is commensurate with the size of the UK’s productivity challenge.

“We provide funded independent training, coaching and mentoring to improve companies’ capability and capacity so that they win business, thereby allowing them to invest further in their skills and infrastructure to win even more contracts.”

Endorsed by Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales, the SiG programme supports the Government and industry-backed Aerospace Growth Partnership and its supply chain charter.

Companies interested in the programme should register at the Web site (www.sig-uk.org/apply).