Business retention and expansion (BR&E) is a primary economic development strategy. BR&E supports and fosters the development and growth of the business community. The result of a strong BR&E strategy is a healthy and thriving business community which in turn provides a long term sustainable community foundation. Long-term BR&E programs are a means of connecting businesses with resources and opportunities that will improve their competitive position, market networks and ultimately their profitability.

If you wish to have credits applied to Continuing Education’s Professional Management Certificate – Economic Developers, you will need to contact our office at 403-220-2866 . Credits for the Community Economic Development courses equals 2/3 of the instruction hours to a maximum of 30 hours, i.e. for a 15 hour course you will receive 10 hours credit.

Instructor: Natalie Gibson 

To register: https://conted.ucalgary.ca/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=15264259

Learn key concepts related to business and investment attraction in economic development. Cover community investment readiness; competitive advantage, how to select key target markets for investment attraction; working with site selectors; and, attracting foreign direct investment to help your community expand its economic base. Learn how to develop business investment strategies that will benefit your community.   

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the different types of new investment versus investment attraction
• Examine criteria to evaluate if your community is in fact ‘investment ready’
• Describe components that may be included in an Investment Attraction Strategy
• Identify methods to recognize the target industries that may be attracted to your community
• Explore investment attraction tools and resources
• Classify the different types of site selectors and what their search criteria may be
• Recognize the four basic stages of site selection
• Review types of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and support resources
• Compare methods of measuring your BI&A program or activities success
  

Online registration: https://conted.ucalgary.ca/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=15410870

Instructor: Natalie Gibson

This course is the first in a series that will provide you with the knowledge and skills to become proficient at economic development. The function of economic development (ED) is often complex, and understanding your role in the process will be key both to the success of your career, and to the overall success of your economic development activities.

This course is the 30,000-foot view of the process of economic development. It provides the theory and fundamentals of ED along with examples of how it can be applied. There is no one way to do ED. Each community, organization or volunteer group will do ED differently.

The primary goals of this course are to:

• Identify what economic development is;
• Determine how you fit into the function;
• Examine how you can best serve your community as an economic development professional; and
• Identify the tools and resources that can help economic developers meet local development challenges.

To register: 

https://conted.ucalgary.ca/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=12618114

Instructor: Holly Sorgen