Essential Economic Development

A Foundation Course for Local and Regional Economic Development

17 lessons, 2.5 hours. Learn the fundamentals of local and regional economic development for free.

Access the course via our community learning site. Or subscribe via email to get a daily lesson emailed directly to you.

Access via our community learning site:

Access the course via our community learning site here. The 17 lessons are structured as follows:

1. Rationale for Local and Regional Economic Development
2. Overview of themes and functions
3. Understanding economics and economic trends
4. Megatrends
5. Theory of Economic Development
6. Policy
7. Strategy
8. Intelligence & insight
9. Industrial development & clusters
10. Enterprise & entrepreneurship
11. Inward investment / FDI
12. Labour markets
13. Education & skills
14. Economic Participation, Employability and Unemployment
15. Poverty & inequality
16. Place & infrastructure
17. Low carbon, climate change & sustainability

Register here to get free access to the Foundation course’s 17 lessons

 

Email course: Register below for your 17-Daily lessons by email

Protected: ๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ – ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ’๐˜€ ๐Ÿฑ ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—น ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

๐—œ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ โ€“ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒโ€™๐˜€ ๐Ÿฑ ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—น ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€

The evidence is clear: successful industrial clusters generate genuine competitive advantages. Firms in Oxfordshireโ€™s Motorsport Valley are 6x more productive than isolated competitors. Research Triangle Park transformed North Carolina from textile dependence into a ยฃ17 billion innovation economy. Denmarkโ€™s professionalised clusters consistently outperform regions without them. Yet cluster initiatives can sometimes fail to deliver. Why? [โ€ฆ]

๐——๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐˜† ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ

Local leaders often say they canโ€™t afford to invest in economic development. ๐˜‰๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฏโ€™๐˜ต ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ญ โ€“ ๐˜ช๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด. ๐——๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ธโ€™๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น: ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€. ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฌ๐—ข๐—จ๐—ฅ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด. Consider what [โ€ฆ]

Will the UKโ€™s ๐Ÿด๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿฌ,๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ โ€œ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€โ€ be coming back to work?

Since COVID, 850,000 people in the UK withdrew from the active labour market. This massive rise in economic inactivity has happened at the same time that policy has tightened controls on hiring overseas workers, and the UKโ€™s further and adult education system has been squeezed by budget cuts and inflexibilities (prior to 2026). I did [โ€ฆ]