CPD, training and skills in Local and Regional Economic Development
- 15 hours of on-demand courses covering the 8 disciplines of local and regional economic development
- Practical workbooks (e.g. FDI from scratch; develop a great project idea)
- Community, chatrooms, discussion
- Mentoring support
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
- Training and skills for economic development practitioners
- For less than the price of a conference, you get a year’s membership
Develop Your Skills in Local and Regional Economic Development With Online Tutorials, Briefings and Workbooks
15 hours of courses; 17 workbooks
Initial Focus on Professional Training for Executives With 0-5 Years of Experience
Resources for more experienced executives will be launched May 2026
Founder Membership Available Offering Mentoring and Coaching
Click on the button below to access
CPD for local and regional economic develoment
A real live community with interaction, live events, expert Q&A and live cohorts of courses.
Flexible lean learning: learning and skills when you need them
You can access any course at any time, when you need it. Need to learn about FDI for your meeting next week? we’ve got it covered.
A free foundation course in Economic Development
A free 2-hour foundation course for those new to local and regional economic development.
Regular articles, tips, guides and industry news
Short form news and tips, and long-form expert reviews and guides.
A paid membership that includes all courses, resources and access to live content and webinars
Membership gets you access to 15+ hours of courses, that are being refined and expanded all the time – in response to your needs.
Mentoring and coaching
Structured mentoring programmes with specialist expert advisors and mentors.
The Team
Glenn Athey
Glenn (BA, MA, PhD) has 31 years of experience in local, city and regional economic development and regeneration.
This includes executive leadership, project development and leadership, area visioning programmes, leading partnerships, and economic analysis and insight.
Glenn has held senior roles at Futureskills Scotland, London Development Agency, Centre for Cities, The East of England Development Agency, and Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP.
Glenn also heads up a consultancy practice at Mylocaleconomy; and contributes to the Local Skills Improvement Partnership.
3 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙀𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘿𝙤 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙀𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠
Folks, that 100-page report full of stats, charts (and hopefully analysis telling us what it means) about your local economy was not meant to sit on your shelf gathering dust! I've lost count of the number of cracking economic reviews I've done for clients to support...
𝙒𝙝𝙮 “𝙒𝙚 D𝙤𝙣’𝙩 B𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 P𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 W𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨” 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 F𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙚 A𝙧𝙜𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩
𝙒𝙝𝙮 "𝙒𝙚 D𝙤𝙣'𝙩 B𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨" 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 F𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙚 A𝙧𝙜𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝗗𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 C𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲: W𝗵𝘆 G𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 H𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 I𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 P𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 W𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 E𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗿 N𝗼𝘁 Dani Rodrik (Harvard University) argues that governments are "doomed to choose" and inevitably engage in industrial...
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝘽𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙚…
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝘽𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙚...𝗜𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮. Clients often approach people like me at the 'concept stage' of the business case process with project pitches like, “We need to do something...
𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮 “𝙒𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙖 𝙨𝙪𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨”
Successful places need an economic development strategy as much as unsuccessful ones.Here's 5 mistakes that successful places make: 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 #𝟭: 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱. I live in a tech town. Sure its successful if you are a tech worker, but not if you are in...
5 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢
5 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 1️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. Politicians tend to care about the community, the issues faced and the constituencies they...
5. Beyond slogans: a grown-up conversation about UK industrial strategy (Article 5 of 5 on industrial policy)
The preceding four articles have sought to build perspectives on the role of industrial development in local and regional economies. In this final article. I tie this together by looking at the role of industrial policy and strategy. The perennial question for the UK:...