Excellence in Economic Development

Excellence in Economic Development is a Standard for organisations aspiring to excellence in the profession. It is applicable to small, medium or large organisations in both the public and private sector.

It enables organisations such as Local Authorities, LEPs and consultancies operating in economic development to develop the competence of their people, projects and processes, facilitate the exchange of best practice and enable benchmarking over time.

Through our Self Assessment Toolkit, which is provided free of charge to any IED member, organisations can identify areas of activity and expertise that are essential to the achievement of objectives in economic development.

The toolkit has recently been updated to adopt a modular approach so that only the areas of relevance to your organisation are chosen/assessed. For example, your organisation may wish to only concentrate on achieving excellence in Research and Analysis or Understanding and supporting business. This allows you to complete the assessment in a more time effective manner.

The modules are:

Module 1: Research and Analysis

Module 2: Strategic Planning and Programme Design

Module 3: Appraisals and Evaluations

Module 4: People and Partnership Skills

Module 5: Operations Planning, Implementation and Project Management

Module 6: Understanding and supporting business

For each module, using the Self Assessment Toolkit will identify key areas of activity and skills and having achieved the status of Working towards Excellence in any module an organisation may then apply to the Institute for recognition as having achieved Excellence in Economic Development.

If you would like a free copy of the Self Assessment Toolkit please enter your email address below. If you would like speak to someone at the IED about the toolkit, in the first instance please email admin@ied.co.uk.

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Case Study - Enterprise St Helena awarded Excellence in Economic Development

Economic development practitioners from Saint Helena Island, the remote British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean some 1,200 miles from the south-west of Africa which is currently only accessible by sea, became the first ever recipients of the IED’s Excellence in Economic Development standard late in 2016.

After receiving their Excellence in Economic Development certificate from Sir Vince Cable, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Niall and Kirsty from ESH spoke of their pride at receiving the IED’s quality kitemark: “We applied for Excellence in Economic Development because we wanted a systematic economic development process for the Island, one that would challenge us as we strive for improvement and innovation. The award from the IED will undoubtedly help us to protect the Island for future generations.”

They added: “Mapping out our competencies and development needs through self-assessment gave us the confidence to apply for external assessment and the journey we have been on with the IED has been one worth taking. It is also one that I would fully recommend to other organisations considering applying for the excellence standard. Receiving this award signifies the body of work undertaken from everyone at ESH.”