Graduate to Export Programme
Financial support to help companies grow their business by employing a graduate to take forward a market research project to target a market outside Northern Ireland.
This support is available to Invest Northern Ireland customers. If your business can show that it intends to sell outside Northern Ireland, is actively pursuing growth plans and will contribute to increasing productivity and innovation in Northern Ireland, you could become a customer with Invest NI.
The criteria for Invest NI customers is as follows:
- actual turnover >= £250,000
- actual external sales >= 25 per cent or £250,000 per annum
- growth potential
Growth potential is defined by Invest NI as:
- potential employment growth >= 20 per cent or >= 20 jobs within three years; or
- potential external sales growth >=20 per cent or >= £500,000 within three years; or
- potential increase in GVA / employee >= 20 per cent within three years
If your application is successful, you will receive salary support to employ the graduate of 50 per cent (up to a maximum of £18,000 for the eighteen-month programme) and export skills training and mentorship for the graduate provided by Ulster University and the Institute of Export.
Graduates spend the first six months of the programme in Northern Ireland getting to know your business and starting the training programme. The following 12 months are spent in the export market undertaking the market research project with full support from your company, along with academic and company mentors.
- Invest Northern Ireland