Just as Queen Elizabeth II reflects on her 14 UK Prime Ministers, I have been thinking about the 14 wonderful Chairs and Presidents of Enterprise Educators UK, all of whom I have been honoured to work with since 2006.

In 2011 when I started my current stint at EEUK, Professor Andy Penaluna was Chair.  EEUK had just gone through a fairly turbulent time formalising its structure as a legal entity, and my regular ‘audiences’ with Andy were about steadying the ship, taking on greater responsibility for leading the annual conference (IEEC), and putting a plan in place to drive the membership up from 63 members.  We dreamt of 100, but at that point, it really did feel like a dream rather than a realistic ambition.

Going back a little further, I had an earlier period working with EEUK from 2006 to 2008 when the organisation was transitioning from UKSEC to EEUK.  I worked with Chairs, Dr Bob Handscombe, Dr Julie Holland and Chris Hall to remodel and rebrand the organisation.  Dr Simon Brown became Chair after I left but it would be remiss not to recognise Simon’s long slog, ably supported by Director and Company Secretary Brian Clements and former Chair Chris Hall, to establish EEUK as a Company limited by guarantee in 2010.

I have mentioned Andy but who are the others from recent years?  Dr Kelly Smith followed Andy and was in turn followed by Dave Jarman, Dr Tom Williamson, Sheila Quairney, Dr Karen Bill, Professor Gups Jagpal, Professor Sarah Underwood, Jon Powell, and Gareth Trainer.  To bring us bang up to date, and with the new title of President, we have Dr Emily Beaumont at the helm of the good ship EEUK.  I have spent too long telling people that blogs must be short so won’t expand on all their many achievements.  However, I do want to recognise Gareth’s recent two-year spell, through the challenges of the pandemic, when he introduced a totally revised governance structure to enable EEUK Associates to have more input to the future direction of EEUK.

And then there was the Chair who sadly never became Chair.  Regular phone calls starting with his usual joke “Hello Kate, it’s your brother Richard” stopped abruptly and tragically in 2016 when Dr Richard Beresford, Vice Chair of EEUK, died suddenly. Richard and I were not related but he was a massive part of the EEUK family, and we were all immensely shocked and saddened to lose him.  The 2016 IEEC gala dinner in Liverpool cathedral saw Richard’s widow, Dr Nicolette Michels, bravely announce the new EEUK Richard Beresford Bursary which, to this day, provides bursaries to support the professional development of early career enterprise educators – a fitting tribute to Richard.

At the end of March, I leave EEUK where I have totally loved working with my colleagues Lynn O’Byrne and Alison Price and the many directors who have come and gone over the years, each leaving their own legacy.  And of course, the EEUK Members and Associates who make EEUK a truly collaborative and sharing organisation.  Rob and Sal Edwards are picking up the reins and I know they will do a brilliant job.  All I can say to them is – enjoy the ride!

But what happened to that dream of 100 members?  Well, we have reached 115, an achievement of which I am immensely proud, that could not have been reached without the collaboration and teamwork that makes the EEUK family a very special community to be a part of.

Kate Beresford

Outgoing Head of Membership and Operations and Director of IEEC, Enterprise Educators UK

Sheffield Hallam: Innovative entrepreneurs celebrated

The annual Hallam Enterprise Awards is the flagship start-up competition event at Sheffield Hallam University, supported with start-up funding from Santander Bank. Since 2020 the awards have been hosted online but at the end of 2021 the Enterprise Team honoured both the 2020 and 2021 finalists at an in-person networking event (see above).  Damien Mullany, deputy relationship manager at Santander Universities UK said: “We are delighted to support student and graduate start-ups at Sheffield Hallam. The start-up support offered to students and graduates at Sheffield Hallam, which includes the HEA, is vital to encourage them to make their business dreams a reality.”

LSBU alumnus appears on Dragons’ Den!

Aaron Branch, a Music and Sonic Media graduate from London South Bank University (LSBU) recently appeared on Dragons’ Den with fellow tech entrepreneur, Zak Lloyd, to pitch their business. Delivrme is an app that allows you to get anything and everything – from medicines to iPads – delivered straight to your door. Whilst they didn’t get any investment, they did receive positive feedback and have since raised over £700,000 and counting via crowdfunding. This isn’t Aaron’s only entrepreneurial venture; in 2017/18, LSBU’s Student Enterprise team supported him to grow Social Agendas, a digital marketing agency. Read more here.

UCL: Quantum machine learning startup joins US biotech firm

UCL startup Rahko has been acquired by biotechnology company Odyssey Therapeutics to help develop new drugs for patients with cancer and inflammatory diseases. Rahko’s technology will help Odyssey Therapeutics establish the next generation of oncology drugs and immunomodulators (drugs that can support the immune system in its response to the medicine). It’ll also enable them to find drugs for patients with inflammatory diseases and cancer more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Read more here.

Sheffield Hallam: THE Outstanding Entrepreneurial University 2021

This award is the culmination of five years of hard work from fantastic colleagues across Sheffield Hallam to embed entrepreneurial and employability principles within the curriculum, our partnerships, and research programmes. The judges praised the university for its “comprehensive approach” to embedding entrepreneurship. The Enterprise Team’s contribution was a significant factor in the university winning the award. Over the past 5 years the team (pictured above) has developed one of the largest sandwich year placement schemes in the UK. In addition, the team has made important progress towards embedding enterprise and entrepreneurial skills development into the curriculum through the Enterprise Residency programme.

Westminster: Pioneer Programme

Westminster Enterprise Network (WeNetwork) have partnered with VoXo to deliver their 2021 Entrepreneurship Pioneer Programme; an online programme to inspire and empower current students from underrepresented backgrounds and identities to explore entrepreneurship. The programme offers 30 selected students expert led workshops, mentoring and opportunities to connect with investors, inspirational founders, and industry leaders. The programme is underlined by WeNetwork’s mission to make entrepreneurship and industry more inclusive and representative of the diversity of the University of Westminster student community, by contributing to the building of a diverse, experienced, confident, and highly skilled talent pipeline. Find out more

York: Showcase of entrepreneurial achievements

Students at the University of York gathered in person for the first time since lockdown to showcase entrepreneurial achievements made during the University’s ‘Summer Accelerator’. Of the fifteen businesses piloted, six students made presentations on their progress to a panel of alumni and local entrepreneurs. The ideas on show varied widely, from sanitation solutions for off grid communities to avionic systems designed to sanitise large spaces. The panel offered helpful feedback about next steps to all the presenters. With this feedback, combined with the contacts made during the networking session, the students demonstrated a good foundation with which to strike out into the world of start-ups, or simply enhance their employability more generally.

Cardiff Met: Christmas market returns

After a brief hiatus last year, the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Cardiff Met were delighted to bring back their annual Christmas market. With a record number of stalls, students and graduates were able to test trade, market their start ups and gain valuable customer feedback throughout the day. The market was a one stop shop for local, handmade and unique Christmas gifts and a collaboration with Riverside Food Markets made for a festive community feel on campus. Alongside the in person event, a virtual gift guide was also launched which has received over 570 views via social media and email.

The Government’s delay releasing the ‘Levelling Up’ White Paper means that 2022 will start with a fresh look at English regions, their autonomy and decision making.  With this focus, it is clear that policy work, such as HESA’s Regional variation in the design and nature of graduate work as well as that exploring the impact of the pandemic will all add to our understanding of what levelling up means for universities (HEPI). However, this does not mean that things are quiet across our nation states.  The future of Welsh Higher Education is shifting as the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill details the legislative powers of the new Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (*CTER, pronounced “sea-tear”) and may impact our thinking at IEEC2022, Swansea.

The rest of the year is likely to see discussions on metrics, tracking, impact, and skills dominating our landscape. The UK push for Skills will impact both FE and HE provision and may fuel the lure of micro-credentials in a complex and insecure labour market.

In addition, it has been suggested that the UK will see pandemic ‘aftershocks’ lasting for over a decade across education, within regional inequalities and across key services, and there will be a focus on FE and HE to support this loss of access to education and skills development and this could see an increased focus on our role in regional economic development through business starts /spin outs and jobs created.  Colleagues at Luminate share their predictions for the graduate labour market suggesting that things may level off in 2022 after an initial spike in recruitment but it is clear that education and skills are seen as key in supporting a post-Brexit high skilled economy.

Whilst it is clear within the policy world, just like education, there is still very little that we could call business as normal, it is evidence enterprise and entrepreneurship education, and EEUK Associates, have much to offer our students as we enter 2022, and if EEUK can help you, get in touch.

Alison Price, Head of Policy and Professional Development

Enterprise Educators UK

I get up in the morning to make a difference! And societal impact is on my mind most days.

Winning the Experienced Teaching Practitioner Award with the British Academy of Management in 2020 with an enterprise teaching innovation, meant that I was invited as keynote speaker to three national events in 2021. I want to share my learning – how to translate your passion about making a difference into a learning intervention, mine I called ‘Pop-up shops’.

Today’s post is particularly exciting for me because the need to address social enterprise and student interest in it has grown since I launched my first trial of pop-up shops in 2015. Raising awareness of what a social enterprise is can be tricky, I found it works well with the pop-up shops. And then organisations like the School of Social Enterpreneurs can help further after graduation and for those with an existing career.

One of the best bits of my role as an academic researcher and teacher is that I can try out new ideas in a safe place. If you are an academic teacher or an enterprise adviser, practitioner in our EEUK ‘speak’, you can gain permission from your line manager and students to try something new! Just do it! – is my first tip.

Thinking of a brand new idea or exercise never done before – is not needed. What about a different way of doing something you know? Something unexpected in the presentation, such as new packaging or colour, that raises attention, and changing the sequence of activities.

Here are some of my changes to an existing known activity, pop-up shops, for learning about and through enterprise. To start with, it is student-centred learning, I only provide space, time and basic resources such as table, chairs and an opportunity. STUDENTS:

• Select a charity to give profits to
• Design a service / product to sell for a day
• Run a stall for a day in groups and find their own groups
• Carry out a risk assessment
• Write an assessed reflection
• Bear the risks of not making enough money to cover costs for buying materials! Yes, indeed.

And a last piece of insight – re-imagine your role as the facilitator for learning, and not as a teacher or instructor. This insight means that your ‘advice giving’ is indirect, through asking questions or telling a story or a case you know – let the learners / start-ups make the links to what they are doing! This learning simply sticks and you can see the light bulb going on in their faces.

Let’s continue the conversation in the EEUK LinkedIn group or contact me to send you a copy of the associated book chapter (Hill and Bass, 2019 with lots more detail. Here is the ETC guidance to the pop-up shops.

Dr Inge Hill, Royal Agricultural University, Director Enterprise Educators UK

It has become an EEUK Christmas tradition that I compose the blog for December and shamelessly attempt to squeeze Christmas based puns into a Christmas theme at any and every opportunity.  Yule (see!) be happy to hear that this year is Noel exception (I’m terrible aren’t I!). Therefore, let me take this opportunity to reflect on the engine house that is the EEUK board and bring to you the EEUK ghosts of enterprise past, present and future!

EEUK ghosts of enterprise past

At times this year there have been glimpses of normality and in November, I was able to attend the Chartered ABS annual conference in person, meeting face to face with colleagues and presenting to a live audience.  The highlight was bumping into Prof Sarah Underwood and Prof Gurpreet Jagpal, former Chairs of EEUK, and now Honorary Fellows.  Sarah and Gups are both great examples of benevolent spirits whose work whilst on the Board continues to impact EEUK and its members.  The EEUK Fellowship, Sarah’s legacy, was developed with Alison Price to help the sector to continue to increase the scale, scope and effectiveness of enterprise and entrepreneurship education and practice.  In her role as Chair, Sarah ensured the Fellowship was open to the full range of roles and responsibilities that support enterprise and entrepreneurship whilst also recognising that many staff bring expertise from their own discipline and/or previous employment/experience to deliver excellent enterprise education across their institution.  We now have over 40 Fellows making the EEUK Fellowship the professional standard for all those working to deliver entrepreneurial outcomes in others.

EEUK ghosts of enterprise present

More recently, we have just bestowed Honorary Fellowships on former board members Jon Powell and Neil Coles, our EEUK ghosts of enterprise present! Jon Powell joined the board in August 2013 and served for eight years which makes him the longest serving EEUK board member. Jon served as Vice-Chair from 2017 to 2018 then Chair the following year during which time he led an EEUK delegation to China which initiated a collaboration with the Zingy network. During his final two years on the board, he continued to strengthen the Chinese collaboration which continues today.

As a member of the Executive Team, Neil Coles instigated a financial infrastructure project to establish the transparent and streamlined accounting system used by EEUK today. He meticulously managed the accounts through the pandemic, ensuring member benefits and strategic ambitions were still met.  He even found the time to overhaul the National Enterprise Educator Awards!

EEUK ghosts of enterprise Future

But what about the EEUK ghosts of enterprise future.  Well, they are you, or certainly could be.  In 2022 we will be seeking nominations for EEUK board members and I hope you will consider this opportunity.  It is an opportunity to play a vital role in EEUK’s decision making whilst supporting a sub-committee that aligns with your own expertise and interest.  More than that however, it is a chance to work and collaborate with some fabulous people and organisations in support of our enterprise and entrepreneurship educator community.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Dr Emily Beaumont, President of Enterprise Educators UK

Durham: Student wins the inaugural Global Student Prize

Jeremiah Thoronka, a student at Durham University, has won the Chegg.org Global Student Prize for his efforts in trying to combat energy poverty in his native Sierra Leone. Actor Hugh Jackman announced Jeremiah the winner of the award and $100,000. Jeremiah is the Founder of Optim Energy that transforms vibrations from vehicles and pedestrian footfall on roads into an electric current. The start-up has provided free electricity to 150 households comprising around 1,500 citizens, as well as 15 schools where more than 9,000 students attend. Read more here.

Aston: Student entrepreneurs raise £2,500 for charity

Team entrepreneurs from Team Academy Aston, comprised of Aston University’s BSc and MSc Business Enterprise Development programmes, ran, walked, cycled, and traded their way to raise more than £2,500 for charity in just five days. Beneficiaries included Birmingham RSVP; Birmingham Children’s Hospital; Cancer Research UK; WWF; Newlife; and the Make A Wish Foundation. William Graves, Regional Fundraiser from Birmingham Children’s Hospital, said: “We are so grateful that Team Academy Aston chose to support our charity as part of this project. The funds raised will help us to do more for our sick kids and families, making a real difference to all who use our hospital services.”

Swansea: Healthcare Technology Centre collaboration

Swansea University’s Healthcare Technology Centre has announced a research collaboration with UK sensor and medical diagnostic company Zimmer and Peacock Ltd. The project will deliver on the knowledge transfer regarding immobilisation of aptamers for screen-printed sensor development. This work will increase the choice of off-the-shelf sensors for initial research and development offered by Zimmer and Peacock to the scientific communities, while aiming to create new jobs in Swansea. Read the full story here.

LSBU: ‘Working for yourself’

Through a new pilot programme, ‘Freelance Fortnight’, LSBU students and graduates are exploring enterprise and entrepreneurial skills, through the lens of self-employment. Following research conducted earlier this year, the programme aims to boost skills, knowledge and confidence relevant to working for yourself, by focusing on core areas of need as identified by students and graduates themselves. Delivered in hybrid, the team facilitated 6 workshops, connecting with over 35 students/graduates online and in-person. Surveys capturing participants’ aspirations, learnings and key actions for the future, will enable the team to review and develop this activity in 2022. More information here.

UCL: alumnus receives prestigious humanitarian award in memory of Princess Diana

Zubair Junjunia (pictured below with Prince William), a UCL alumnus and online entrepreneur, has been recognised with a Diana Legacy award for his groundbreaking work tackling inequalities in education with his UCL startup ZNotes. Read the full story here.

Image Credit: The Diana Award

As EEUK looks back over 2021, our pre-pandemic aspirations haven’t changed, whilst many significant issues have merely come into sharper focus* and will need our resolve and ongoing commitment to address these further in 2022.

(*See for example, the calls to address disadvantage and underrepresentation in access to business start-up support as well as wider education (as highlighted within Unlocking the potential of ethnic minority businesses: Tackling the barriers to success (SMF 2021) or the continuing challenge of supporting student mental health, which is the focus of the Scottish HEIs commitments in the latest wellbeing report (Dec 2021)).

As a sector, we continue our discussions as to ‘what works’ and how we know that it does, as we continue to share ideas of metrics and measurements. This has been a key theme within our EEUK research funding EERPF which has seen many explorations into success, impact and deepening our understanding as it is clear that we need data to understand if we are serving our students well and ensuring that our approach is inclusive and accessible.  EEUK share these findings with you across the membership, through EEUK events /webinars and within our website and across the ETCToolkit. However, understanding the impact, you have in your role is never straight forward – despite the heartfelt acceptance by every Enterprise Educator that enterprise education can be transformational, how do we prove that to others?

Increasingly EEUK Associates are showing the benefits of clear policy and practice, including at national level (see this latest research that shows how Welsh policy has created impact – thanks to EEUK Associates:  D Bozward, M Rogers-Draycott, K Smith, M Mave, V Curtis, C Aluthgama-Baduge, R Moon, and N Adams).  Associates are also recognising that approaches that seek to replicate business practice can further replicate inequalities that are inherent there and are working to truly to make “enterprise for all”.

But whether you are lighting the spark, supporting the business to start, energising staff or students, we wish you a screen-free proper break – as there is work to do in 2022 and we need your support – so have a great break and see you in the new year where we will be exploring how GREENCOMP enhances EntreComp!

Alison Price

Head of Policy and Professional Development, Enterprise Educators UK

Nottingham: Ingenuity programme open to all

The Ingenuity Programme brings students, staff and alumni from over 30 UK universities together with local communities and is designed to help participants turn their ideas for change into a business that creates impact. The focus is on ideas that create sustainable impact in improving health, tackling climate change, or building stronger communities following the Covid-19 pandemic. The free programme is delivered through an online summit, taking place in December 2021, followed by an online development programme and national business plan competition running from February – May 2022. Participants will hear from those with lived or professional experience of the biggest social and environmental challenges facing the UK today, as well as charity leaders, think tanks, and industry experts. Teams or individuals with the most viable ideas will also be partnered with a mentor to develop their business plan and pitch, with the prize winners announced at the Impact Evening on 19 May 2022. The programme is open to everyone, no matter their background or experience, and you can find out more at ingenuityimpact.org

Oxford: Legends of Leadership global event

Join the Oxford Foundry on 24^th November for the first event in Dan Carter’s ‘Legends of Leadership’ series. All Blacks sporting legend and OXFO Leader in Practice, Dan Carter, will be in conversation with Reid Hoffman CBE, co-founder of LinkedIn. Livestreamed globally for anyone and everyone – this is an incredible opportunity to gain unique and unparalleled access to leadership advice and insights from two world-renowned leaders in sport and entrepreneurship. Join OXFO to gain essential lifelong learning and direction, and feel inspired, empowered, and ready to lead and succeed in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Sign up for the event here

UCL-backed company helps millions of students choose the best university for them

Unibuddy is transforming the way students choose their place of study, and how universities recruit them, with its interactive digital platform. Co-founded by UCL alumnus Kimeshan Naidoo and Diego Fanara, the company has raised $32 million in investment and is working in partnership with 500 universities in 35 countries. The company employs 130 staff. Prospective students can chat and interact with existing students through the Unibuddy platform. Nine out of 10 students who use the platform felt more confident about their university choice, according to user feedback. Read more here.

2021 November’s policy blog provides some key resources to keep you updated on several themes, so take a look:

In support of COP26: Building on the UN Sustainability Goals EEUK members will find the QAA (2021) Guidance on Sustainable Development to be a great companion guide to the QAA (2018) Enterprise and Entrepreneurship guidance that already complements your own QAA subject benchmark.   EEUK Honorary Fellow Professor Andy Penaluna makes the case for bringing these agendas together in your work here whilst the views of students are clear in this report from the summer, as students declare it to be their no.1 issue.

In addition, lessons for social enterprise can be found in a new report here and ideas for institutional change can be found here.

Social Enterprise: The launch of the latest Social Enterprise report highlighted the role of social enterprises during the pandemic as well as their role as environmental champions and a space which sees female founders flourishing. Take a look at their quick stats which are focused around economic, societal and environmental impact.

HM Government Budget (Nov 2021): featured a couple of changes relating to business growth/exit :

• ‘Entrepreneurs Relief’ might not be a familiar tax term, as it is part of the dissolution of a business rather than the start-up arena where many of our members work, however you can find the latest on this capital gains tax here, under Business Asset Disposal Relief
• New visa scheme to help start-ups and rapidly growing tech firms source talent from overseas was highlighted. These of the three new routes originally formed part of Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s UK Innovation Strategy (July 2021) and will be of interest to growth business.

Female Founders: The latest Barometer on women’s enterprise (2021) continues the themes from last year with finance (difficulty in securing finance, limited business contacts and difficult in obtaining support from enterprise agencies) as  the key challenge. Respondents asked for support on financial management/cost control, business planning and fundraising/investor relations.

Understanding Graduate Outcomes: You can track these issues within English HEs, including female founders, by understanding Graduate Outcomes. Start by reading our latest EEUK Blog from Gareth Trainer and Matt Clarke, and then sign up for more information from the JISC data analytics, indicating the EEUK Blog in your response (and /or you might be interested in this January 2022 JISC free event )

Recent EEUK Fellowship awards have provided new additions to the ETCToolkit library of support.  Search here to find their submissions and check our the latest work from Poltava University of Economics and Trade and the University of Portsmouth (supported  by Ukrainian  Cultural Fund and the British Council as a part of Culture For Change programme) which asks if creatives are creative?

Visas: Following on from the Newcastle University’s overview visa video we are currently asking for your visa questions, as the UK Government recently set out plans to revitalise the Innovator route with new arrangements to go live in the Autumn 2022. In answer to the queries we raised, they have confirmed that they are reviewing the need for the Start-up route, given the introduction of the graduate route and the end of £50k requirement under the innovator route, to determine if there is sufficient flexibility for international entrepreneurs starting up in UK.   If you have anything to add to this process or would like to get in touch with your questions, EEUK will collate and share those with the Home Office. Write to alison@enterprise.ac.uk to raise your points.

Alison Price, Head of Policy and Professional Development

Enterprise Educators UK