NORTHERN Ireland enterprise centre LEDCOM is celebrating 30 years of job creation, support for small businesses and vocational training of long-term unemployed.
Over the past three decades LEDCOM (Local Economic Development Company) has helped create more than 900 small businesses providing 1,500 new jobs; 90 new social enterprises with 250 jobs, and has helped a further 900 unemployed people into work through employment, self-employment and accredited vocational qualifications.
The company has two dedicated business parks at Willowbank and Bank Road in Larne and runs three subsidiary companies, Chain HR, Business Led and Heritage Experience and also runs The Northern Zone Social Enterprise Hub, based in the Ecos Centre in Ballymena, providing support for groups from the community and voluntary sector who wish to explore and develop a social enterprise as a means of securing income.
LEDCOM’s chief executive officer Ken Nelson said the company would continue to look at innovative ways to stimulate the economy in Northern Ireland and create job opportunities, adding that it would not have been able to provide such a valuable service without the dedication of its voluntary directors.