Advising Entrepreneurial Students
Details of ‘Best Practice’ submitted by HEIs
1.0 Aston: Students snap up places at entrepreneurial event
2.0 Aston: Expert Panel
3.0 UAE: For women entrepreneurs
4.0 Lancaster: Enterprise Centre
5.0 London: One-day Business Training
6.0 Entrepreneurship at Cardiff University
7.0 Entrepreneurship at University of Birmingham
8.0 Newcastle University
9.0 Bradford: a complete enterprise module
10.0 Manchester Metropolitan: Self-employment workshops
11.0 Leeds: Start-up and Leadership
12.0 UCE Birmingham:Self Employment
1.0 Aston: Students snap up places at entrepreneurial event
In an attempt to encourage Midlands’s students of all ages to understand self employment and entrepreneurship, Aston University Careers Service recently hosted an action packed day of advice and information entitled EnterpriseFest 2006.
The day of events which were funded by the Mercia Institute, was separated into two sessions in order to accommodate the wide age range of the students attending.
The morning session consisted of students from 10 local schools from all around the region, aged 14 to 16, partaking in a challenging and fun business game led and organised by Rolls Royce. The business game entitled ‘Business Enterprise Challenge’, proved to be a great hit with students and teachers alike. The game provided an effective way giving the students a great insight into owning their own businesses as well as functioning as an additional teaching resource for teachers. 21 teams partook in the game, but it was a team from Handsworth Wood Girls School in Birmingham that proved most successful.
The afternoon session was dedicated to students from further and higher education institutions. The session kicked off with three keynote speakers, Wade Lyn, Ninder Johal and Peter Osborne. Each illustrated a success story and very different types of entrepreneurial businesses.
The first speaker was Aston Graduate Ninder Johal who delivered an inspirational presentation which was enjoyed by everyone. As the Managing Director of Nachural Records, the company he set up in 1991, Ninder’s entrepreneurial success is continuing to make waves through the business and music world. The label has had a number of bands and solo stars; including MOBO nominated Punjabi MC. Ninder has also received numerous awards throughout his career including the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Young Asian Business Person Award and Business of the Year for Sandwell.
The second speaker, Peter Osborne, also an Aston graduate has had significant experience of implementing and managing businesses. Peter offered some great advice to the students. He set up his award winning company Special EFX in 1991, which has developed into a very successful business specialising in the production of corporate gifts. Amongst Peter’s impressive list of clients includes Aston Martin, Harrods, The Gadget Shop, British Airways and Aston University.
The third speaker was Wade Lyn, Managing Director of Cleone Food and voted one of the top 100 most influential businessmen of the West Midlands area. Wade proved to be an excellent role model, illustrating the extent of his self made success and welcoming all questions. A prime example of phenomenal achievement through entrepreneurship, Wade now has large supermarket chains such as Asda, Morrison’s and Tesco’s amongst his clients. The skills Wade has developed through entrepreneurship have even led him to become the local adviser to the Bank of England, as well as a member of the Urban Regeneration Panel that advises the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
In addition to the presentations, there was a Q & A session to an experts panel, a mini exhibition and various intervals providing excellent networking opportunities. The expert panel provided an opportunity for all budding entrepreneurs to ask questions and gain advice from some of the region’s most powerful business people. The companies featured included the Prince’s Trust, KTP, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Graduate Advantage and Lloyds TSB.
The day was a huge success and feedback from those attending was excellent,.
‘The event offered a lot more then I was expecting, thank you for running such a great event,’ commented one student.
Aston Careers Service was thrilled with the extent of interest from students and businesses. The Head of Careers Maureen Tibby commented;
‘There was an overwhelmingly positive response to Aston EnterpriseFest 2006 and excellent feedback. It provided a fantastic opportunity for students of all ages to learn from local entrepreneurs who were able to support, encourage and advise on setting up and managing a successful business. The event illustrates Aston Careers Service’s commitment to supporting employability and graduate entrepreneurship.
An enormous thank you must go to all of the Careers team who worked so hard to support the day and in particular to Siobhan Qadir and Debbie Salkeld who did such a fantastic job in organising EnterpriseFest.”
Wednesday 1st March 2006
Matthew Boulton College
1.30 – 5.30 pm
Opened by the Vice Chancellor of Aston University this event looks to help would be entrepreneurs by providing an information packed afternoon. Our Speakers include:-
Wade Lynn of Cleonie Foods
Ninder Johal of Nachural Records and the producer and tabla player with the leading Bhangra band Achanak. He graduated from Aston University in 1986
Peter Osborne of Special EFX. He graduated from Aston University in 1986
There will also be an expert panel comprised of the speakers and
The Princes Trust
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
Birmingham City Council Enterprise department
A leading bank
PRIZES!
2 i-pod shuffles to be won as well as books on starting up your own business.
This event is free of charge, but places are limited. The first ?? who register on line and attend the event will receive a free memory stick at the end of the event. Go to: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/mercia/enterprisefest/aston/apply
This event is organised and hosted by Aston University funded by the Mercia Institute of Enterprise with sponsorship fromGraduate Advantage.
3.0 UAE: For women entrepreneurs
The UEA Careers service in combination with the School, UEA RBS, Norfolk Network and i10 ran a very successful taster session for women entrepreneurs only
It was run by a mix of Careers Service staff and local entrepreneurs telling it like it is, and was followed by break-out groups with students.
We obtained very positive feedback and will be running in the future specific workshops for women entrepreneurs
4.0 Lancaster: Enterprise Centre
Centre for Employability, Enterprise & Careers (CEEC)
Lancaster University
1. Description of activity
To champion the growth of enterprise learning and support for entrepreneurial activities at Lancaster University to benefit our students, graduates and other stakeholders and seek partnerships internal and external to the University to support this aim.
2. Aims, objectives and outcomes
The following developments have taken place and activities successfully introduced within the last 12 months in order to integrate enterprise learning and related support as a core activity of Lancaster University CEEC (Centre for Employability, Enterprise & Careers). In summary, over 550 individuals have engaged with the following new activities in the last year totalling over 4,000 enterprise-related learning hours.
2.1 Developed and integrated new related core services
2.2 Integrated enterprise skills and awareness within the curriculum
2.3 Ensure staff are adequately trained and motivated
2.4 Market provision effectively and gain University buy-in at all levels
2.5 Build strategic partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
2.6 Projects and initiatives in-train for Autumn 2006
3. Benefits to the service, its clients and AGCAS members
4. Testimonials and feedback
“The Physics Department has for the first time discovered the value of professional input from CEEC into its first employability and enterprise module for physics undergraduates this year. This proved of immense value to the students in preparing them for life beyond University. The use of business planning games and interactive workshops proved a stimulating experience that was highly appreciated by all who participated. This successful experiment will be repeated!”
Prof Robin W Tucker (Physics)
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“Thank you very much! Excellent course, really glad I came along, well structured and plenty of help available if we wanted it – I feel encouraged to contact some of the speakers now to discuss my ideas etc.”
Tess Worden, 2 nd Year Media & Cultural Studies [comment on CECA]
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“Helped highlight crucial points for starting a business which may usually tend to go unnoticed.”
Dan Odriscoll, 2 nd Year Business Studies
[commenting on enterprise session embedded within curriculum]
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“Very useful course with good lecturers making it interesting and helpful in inspiring me to set up my own business”
Andrew Hardman, 2 nd Year Politics [comment on CECA]
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“I was very happy with the event. It was much more stimulating than I expected. Good job!”
Jonny Unger, PhD student, Applied Linguistics; NW Runner-up for LiveWire Young Entreprenuer of the Year Award [commenting on ‘Working for Yourself’ conference.
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“The CECA course is a great development which will give Lancaster students a head start in the competition for jobs in the business world or preparing for self-employment. An understanding of business planning combined with the skills to sell your ideas is central to the work of firms like KPMG. Anything which helps develop these skills and encourages a more entrepreneurial approach to business has to be good news.”
Keith Dugdale, Director of Resources, KPMG
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“I am writing to convey my gratitude towards your staff and their recent assistance. I have attended 1-to-1 interviews with Jon Culley and also had the benefit of attending his course on commercial awareness. I have never once failed to be totally impressed and gratified at how cheerful, helpful and welcoming all you r staff are and continue to be surprised at just how much help they offer and well they conduct themselves. Please keep doing whatever it is you are doing to maintain such a great quality of service amongst your staff.”
Ian Clarke, 2 nd Year Psychology; also creator of Media Design & Consultancy Company and New Media-related invention.
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5.0 London: One-day Business Training
Last term, The Careers Group organised a one-day training course called “Advising on Entrepreneurship” which was led by Kevin Dodman, the Business Adviser for the Portobello Business Centre. This was designed to introduce the key issues, procedures and resources associated with starting up a business and so allow careers staff to better understand the current landscape for graduate entrepreneurs, to ask the right questions and to refer students to the most appropriate resources. This course was extremely well attended, both by The Careers Group staff and staff of other university careers services.
6. 0 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
6.1 Student Enterprise
Student Enterprise at Cardiff University is committed to helping students and graduates gain entrepreneurial qualities and enterprise skills which can be applied to make a business successful.
Students and graduates are encouraged to develop a spirit of enterprise and are given the confidence to take the next step.
Students can access a range of services through Student Enterprise, including information, workshops and business mentoring. Staff can guide you towards opportunities to gain the skills and knowledge you need.
The Student Enterprise Unit is not based at the Careers service but at the Research and Commercial Division. All Careers staff involved in providing advice and guidance to students and graduates are familiar with all the developments in this area and continuously refer relevant students to the Student Enterprise Unit and its activities.
For more info go to www.cardiff.ac.uk/studententerprise
6.2 Access to Workshops
Through partnerships with business support agencies dedicated to providing support to students and graduates (Graduating to Enterprise and BOS), Cardiff University is able to offer a series of workshops aimed at developing entrepreneurs. Workshops include areas such as
6.3 Enterprise Events
a) YOMP
Yomping the Nations is an annual national enterprise challenge, open to students of all disciplines. The Yomping the Nations competition is based around Yomp - a business strategy tool that simulates the growth of a business and is based on years of research from universities and businesses. Workshops using Yomp to help students gain commercial awareness are run by Cardiff University’s Student Development Unit throughout out the academic year. Using Yomp, students are asked to work in a team to develop, plan and present a business strategy for a secret business scenario that will be unveiled on the day.
b) FLYING START RALLY
Cardiff participates in the NCGE Flying Start Rally. It brings together the mentors, experts, business support agencies and funders to help students and graduates realise their entrepreneurial dreams.
6.4 Business Support
a) BOS PROJECT
The BOS project is open to any young person in Wales between the ages of 18-30.
The project has a dedicated support team to guide students and graduates through the process and helps prepare people for self employment by providing:
For more information visit www.bos1830.co.uk
b) GRADUATING TO ENTERPRISE
Graduating to Enterprise(G2E) provides support, professional mentoring and workshops specifically for students and graduates ready to start up their own business. Visit www.g2e.co.uk for more information.
c) KNOWLEDGE EXPLOITATION FUND
The Knowledge Exploitation Fund’s (KEF) Entrepreneurship Scholarship Scheme provides support to graduates that are setting up n business (conditions apply). The Programme has been developed to support knowledge-based business start-up ideas from recent graduates (within last 3 years) of Further and Higher education institutions who wish to establish a business in Wales.
Business proposals should show a fresh perspective and a real commitment to making their business work. Successful applicants receive a personal allowance of £144 per week for up to 36 weeks (up to £5,184) to enable them to devote their time to developing their business.
Applications for this fund are submitted by the University’s Research and Commercial Division.
d) STUDENTS IN FREE ENTERPRISE (SIFE)
SIFE gives students the opportunity to bring together enterprise and ethics. The emphasis is on a business approach to developing projects that make a sustainable difference in the community. Students will use their skills and knowledge in the real world, carrying out work with the local community. Students will also be able to initiate and sustain enterprising projects gaining experience in leadership and teamwork. There are fourteen Universities participating 2005/2006 across the UK. SIFE aims to help others develop work-related skills, which will enhance their employability or enable them to start new enterprises. Visit www.sifeuk.org to find out more about SIFE
7.0 Entrepreneurship at University of Birmingham
Here at Birmingham, we have a specialist centre for Entrepreneurship that is based within the Business School called the Enterpreneurship and Innovation Centre - EIC. (The Manager of this unit is called Jamie Elliott).
From the Autumn of 2004, the Careers Centre has worked closely with the Enterpreneurship and Innovation Centre and has collaboratively run something called the Enterprise Skills Series. This is a programme of events running weekly (Thursday afternoons) during the autumn term, and introduces students to a range of issues within the Entrepreneurship field. The aim of the programme is to help students who are thinking about starting their own business understand how to progress with their ideas, and to introduce them to the key facts that they should be aware of when planning to strike out on their own. The past two year’s programmes have included sessions as follows: (Most are run by employers who kindly donated their time to the programme).
Autumn Term 2004:
Autumn Term 2005:
[contacts deleted]
Web links:
www.careers.bham.ac.uk and http://www.res.bham.ac.uk/information/entrepreneurship/
Background
The Careers Service at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has an enviable reputation for innovartion within the HE Sector. The Enterprise Team within the Service is responsible for promoting and embedding enterprise and entrepreneurship within the student body. In addition to a rich diversity of activity the team operate the Enterprise Centre, one of only four Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI) Centres of Excellence in the UK. This submission focuses on a novel scheme were students are employed part-time as Enterprise Interns, acting in effect as additional support staff and peer to peer marketers for enterprise.
The Intern scheme draws on the idea of peer communication being a potent process that exploits social networks to produce exponential increases in brand or service awareness and acts as a recruitment means through referral endorsement. In simple terms students are more likely to interact with, listen to and be influenced by other students. As well as providing much needed help and assistance to staff and with ‘spreading the message’ Interns are part of a multi-facetted approach that is attempting to change the culture of the institution. Interns are employed for 10 hours each per week for the academic year.
Aims of the project
To implement a scheme that employs enterprising students part-time to act as role models, ambassadors and marketers for enterprise.
Objectives of the project
Outcomes from the project
A number of actual outcomes include:
Example of outcomes include: a rise in enterprise registrations from 532 to 1,946 students; 6 requests for Interns to present in lectures, 2 interns move into business start-up and 3 gain employment in ‘enterprise’ related businesses, increased relations with Students Union and 2 HEIs adopt Intern scheme
Operation of the project
The Interns operate with team and individual responsibilities including; duty cover in the Enterprise Centre, organising and delivering Intern led events, assisting core staff with enterprise programmes and leading on the campus network meetings. In addition the Interns manage a budget for their activities and contribute to the overall direction and planning of enterprise across the institution.
Benefits
Benefits to service & members – using students in this role is a potent method of promoting services and products that could be extended to other contexts where peer relations may be important. As well as providing a mechanism to ensure services remain customer focussed the Intern scheme is a cost effective marketing and staffing option. ‘the student body contains a huge variety of people and peers who are promoting enterprise should reflect that’ Intern, undergraduate Mechanical and Design Engineering
Benefits to the institution – the Intern scheme enhances the reputation of the institution, provides an example of good practice in the delivery of student facing services and contributes to the development of an enterprise culture within the institution; ‘in my School only a couple of staff new about the Enterprise Centre…once you target staff you can get the message spread directly to students’ Intern, undergraduate Business Management with Languages
Benefit to students – feedback gathered directly from students by the Interns has been used to ensure services and products remain student focussed and tailored to the needs of a changing agenda and increasingly diverse population. To the Interns themselves the scheme provides a high quality learning experience with a number of real benefits in terms of personal and career development. ‘I saw the internship as a good opportunity to enrich my student experience and I feel confident I could go to an interview with that ‘little bit extra’ Intern, postgraduate Medical & Molecular Bioscience.
9.0 Bradford: a complete enterprise module (download document)
10.0 Self-employment workshops at Manchester Metropolitan
We do not see ourselves as business advisers, and certainly don't stray into topics such registration for VAT, company formulation, IP or the benefits of franchising! The responsibility for primary business advice rests with our Centre for Enterprise and the local business agencies that we work with.
However, I do think it is vital as a vocational guidance practitioner to get the students to think about the personal issues they are going to have to face in the start up phase and whether they really are cut out for what they plan to do or whether they need to consider other options.
We run workshops each term on "Self Employment and Freelancing - Have You Got What It Takes?" The handout on setting goals which I use with our own students will help you to see the extent which I am talking about.
The workshop starts by getting the students to work in pairs to itemise why they want to work for themselves and to reflect on what makes entrepreneurs successful. I then introduce this basic action planning by asking them to consider whether they can cope with: -
Throughout I draw heavily on anecdotes of entrepreneurs who I personally know to illustrate each of the points. It ends by alerting them to a range of resources and local agencies which can all be identified through the Careers Service.
The Manchester Business Consortium and/or the Creative Industries Development Service then provide an input about the role of business agencies and some of the basic business aspects that the students need to be considering in the second half of the session - in total just short of two hours, plus questions.
The handout is taken from a workshop which was developed as the pre-cursor to a series of 5 master-classes all delivered by business experts in their fields through the BEST (Business Enterprise Support Team) project. BEST was originally developed by the University of Salford and financed through ESF. We joined as partners a year later together with the University of Lancaster. It was a brilliant programme which achieved significant brand awareness amongst our students and still provides a very useful approach to the work we are currently involved in with the MMU Business School's Centre for Enterprise.
11.0 Start-up and Leadership at Leeds
I am pleased to attach a couple of examples from the extensive list of enterprise activity here at the University of Leeds Careers Centre. The two examples in question are:
1.Spark. Our business start up programme. I think I am correct in saying that,at present,we are unique in having a business start up facility(complete with incubation space) fully integrated into our Careers Centre.Our rationale for doing this is to place graduate start up firmly alongside all other legitimate career options for our students. A flyer for the programme is available on the NCGE website (download)
2.The International Corporate Leadership Programme module CSER 3010.This level 3 module has been successfully delivered by the Careers Centre into our Engineering Faculty for five years now. It successfully combines themes of leadership, personal and career development and enterprise. One of the pieces of assessment is a group business pitching exercise. More details are available on the NCGE website (download)
12.0 Self Employment at UCE Birmingham
At UCE Birmingham there are many words used for (and by) staff, students and graduates who have great business ideas, set up their own businesses, work for themselves. Depending upon their subject area, the culture of their course and/or family the words might be innovator, creator, self employed, entrepreneur, freelance and probably others too.
Because many of our students are looking at working in the creative industries the phrase that most of them understand is ‘self employment’. Approx 3% of our graduates go into Self Employment according to the official Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, and anecdotally we know that many more take this option in subsequent years
UCE Birmingham had a unit ‘The Idea Works’ specifically set up to advise and support students and graduates on self employment and enterprise opportunities. Unfortunately this was closed down as a result of a change of direction and limited resources. The Careers Service had made good use of the staff in this unit eg making sure they attended any ‘fairs’ or events we were holding for students and also keeping their literature and contact details in the Careers Information bases, so when the unit closed I was concerned about the gap in the information / advice we could provide.
At that time (Spring and Summer 05) UCE Birmingham was in the process of agreeing the initial plans for Personal Development Planning (PDP) and we had agreed that the only way to deliver this to all 24,000 students on 8 sites (plus franchise students on other sites across the Midlands) was via the Virtual learning Environment (VLE) which at UCE is Moodle
Since PDP is currently co-ordinated by me I seized the opportunity to fill the ‘self employment resources’ gap with a less personal but still informative module within PDP (Fig 1)
Figure 1
Although not formally within the ‘PDP’ remit outlined by QAA, Self employment is an integral part of Career Management for many of our students. To enable us to provide the information we needed to create the PDP Self Employment Module we were supported by the European Social Fund (ESF). I was able to employ a part time careers adviser to do the research, make the connections and write the module, which includes everything from ‘have you got what it takes?’ to ‘who can help?’
Figure 2
As a result of developing this ‘PDP–Self Employment’ module I have been able to provide a resource that is accessible for all staff and students at UCE Birmingham, and which also connects those users with wider opportunities and sources of support both inside and outside of the university (fig 2 above). Because it was written by one of my own team the information, contacts and interest is retained by the Careers Service which is a very valuable added bonus.