The key benefit of the Catapulting Kids project for Diploma Consortia is access to a wealth of employers around the Diploma subject areas. The NE Group has been developing significant business engagement activities in the East Midlands for the last 10 years and has established a major network of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the East Midlands. This network of SMEs have been the beneficiaries of in excess of £14m of publicly funded business support through The NE Group and are active in terms of engaging with development projects such as Catapulting Kids.

The main ambition of this project for the Diploma Consortia is to undertake a series of business engagement activities and placements that will contribute to the development of a "model of excellence in business engagement" that will be made available to all diploma partners in the East Midlands. In order to do this effectively, we will need to support some placement activity for Diploma students whereby the business engagement and readiness will be paramount.

As such, the key support available for Diploma Consortia is the engagement of placement organisations in learning line disciplines and appropriate geographic locations for your students. Additionally, placements can be organised for teachers and trainers undertaking delivery of the Diploma as a further means to bring up-to-date industry knowledge into the class room.