A standard you can specify and check
Combined and local authorities, Growth Hubs, funders and government can write the SFEDI Business Support Standards into contracts, require recognised qualifications, and check advisers' certificates online.
Business support depends on trust
A business that comes to a funded support service is trusting the adviser in front of it with decisions that affect its future. Commissioners need to know that the people delivering support have the skills and knowledge to do it well.
The SFEDI Business Support Standards give you a clear, shared description of good business support. A recognised qualification turns accreditation from a claim in a bid into something you can specify, require and check.
What you can specify
Every Standard and requirement has a permanent code, so you can reference exactly what you expect, from a whole Standard such as C5 Measure and evidence impact to a single requirement.
- Read the Core Standards
The Core Standards
Eight Core Standards (C1 to C8) set out the main functions of anyone delivering business support, from building client relationships and diagnosing needs to referral, ethical practice and evidencing impact.
- See the qualifications
Recognised qualifications
Require advisers to hold a qualification that SFEDI recognises as evidence of the Core Standards, such as the SFEDI Awards Level 5 Certificate in Professional Business and Enterprise Support or the Level 7 Certificate or Diploma.
- Browse the Specialist Standards
Specialist Standards
Match your programme's focus to a Specialist Standard, such as S1 Business Finance and Funding, S3 AI and Digital Adoption, S4 Enterprise Mentoring or S7 Sustainable Business and Net Zero. Specialist Certification against these Standards is coming soon.
- Read S14
Your own team
S14 Designing and Commissioning Business Support sets out what good looks like for the people who design, procure and manage programmes, including how to specify and assure the quality of advisers.
Develop your own advisers
- About the Level 5
Through an approved centre
The Level 5 Certificate in Professional Business and Enterprise Support is the qualification route to meeting the refreshed Core Standards. It is available through approved SFEDI Awards centres.
- Ask about the funded route
Through a funded route
Employers in England may be able to fund the Level 5 through the Growth and Skills Levy, as part of an apprenticeship. Talk to us about the funded route and whether it fits your organisation.
Built on SFEDI's record
SFEDI has set standards for enterprise and business support since 1996. It developed the national standards for business support between 2007 and 2010, and they were updated in 2013. They have underpinned qualifications and professional practice across the sector since. The SFEDI Business Support Standards are their evolution, refreshed for today's advisers.
SFEDI developed the qualifications Business Link advisers were required to hold. It also developed national standards for enterprise and entrepreneurship educators, led Get Mentoring, which trained 15,000 volunteer business mentors, and verifies the mentoring organisations listed on MentorsMe.
SFEDI advises government, combined authorities and local authorities on business support, and takes part in the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Small and Micro Business. It is a member of the National Business Mentoring Council, referenced in the government's Small Business Plan, which works to improve the quality and accessibility of business mentoring across the UK. Advisers delivering government-funded business support services have been expected to hold, or work towards, SFEDI qualifications at Level 5 and Level 7.
Questions from commissioners
Yes. The Business Support Standards are free and open under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-ND 4.0). You can use and share them for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you credit SFEDI and quote them as published rather than in altered form.
Yes. Every Standard and requirement has a permanent code (for example C4 or C4.3) that won't be renumbered or reused, so a specification that cites a code will keep its meaning.
Yes. Advisers who hold an SFEDI Awards Level 5 or Level 7 in Professional Business and Enterprise Support Services continue to evidence the Core Standards.
Ask the adviser for their certificate number and check it online. The check confirms whether the certificate is genuine and shows the holder's name and qualification.
Talk to us about specifying the Standards
Our Business Support Team can help you reference the Standards in a specification, or plan the development of your own advisers.