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The use of Mentoring to Facilitate the UCLan Student and Graduate Entrepreneurship Journey - University of Central Lancashire

For the past two years the Enterprise Champion has been running weekly entrepreneurship mentoring sessions for UCLan students uclanlogo72 small and graduates. This is in recognition of a huge demand from individuals who have entrepreneurial aspirations, goals and ideas but unsure where to go for help and support. It is also part of a structured pre-start mentoring and training programme supported by the North West Enterprise Champions Project.

ENW ERDF_RGB Students/graduates are referred by their tutors or respond to advertising and promotional activities. They may also be referred via the futures Hub (one stop shop for Employability and Enterprise) which is centrally located on campus.

Every student/graduate who attends a mentoring session has individual needs. They may be really unsure of what they want to achieve; have the basis of a business idea; a vague notion that they may want to start a business at some time; or, want help with an enterprise project they are doing as part of their degree programme.

Only about one 1 in 10 students/graduates are business ready (i.e. ready to write a business plan or start trading). These people are usually referred directly to the UCLan Northern Lights business incubation programme.

During the sessions there are five key questions/themes which recur:

1. I want to / I am ready to start a business/social venture. How can you help me?

2. I have an idea for a business/social venture, will it work?

3. Do you know of any grants I can bid for to help me start my business/social venture?

4. How can I study enterprise/entrepreneurship outside my degree programme?

5. How can I study enterprise/entrepreneurship as part of my degree programme?

These recu NCEE Logo_web_jpg-02v2 rring questions provided the Enterprise Champion with the inspiration for creating a more systematic and formalised way of supporting the student/graduate entrepreneurship journey. This includes signposting, the development of a more comprehensive pre-start extra-curricular workshop programme, and a review of the UCLan Student Entrepreneurship Award scheme.

Case Study Details

Type	Undergraduate
Impacts	One of the most notable outcomes is the way that the mentoring scheme gives confidence to students/graduates to engage with the programme. The work has highlighted the importance of mentoring in the creation of good working relationships between the advisor and student/ graduate, development of mutual trust between the mentor and mentee and getting students/graduates off to a good start on their entrepreneurial journey. Once engaged, mentees are much more inclined to attend workshops and events and the Enterprise Champion has noticed that many of these people enthusiastically engage with almost everything on offer.
What worked well	The mentoring support scheme has informed the development of an effective signposting service and extra-curricular programme. It has also enabled students/graduates to set out on their entrepreneurial journey with self-confidence and a high level of trust in the North West Enterprise Champions project delivery team.
What could be changed/improved	Due to its success demand for the mentoring service is increasing, therefore, the Enterprise Champion will be supporting other tutors who have expressed an interest in developing entrepreneurship mentoring expertise, with the further possibility of them taking on a mentoring role. In this way the service may be expanded during the remaining time frame of the project. Additional funding is being sought to enable empirical research and further development of the scheme.
Partners	North West Enterprise Champions Project, NCEE, NWUA
Funders	ERDF
Website link	www.uclan.ac.uk/enterprise

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