As we approach the end of another energetic, imaginative and occasionally chaotic year in enterprise and entrepreneurship education, Christmas finally gives us permission to pause, breathe, and, just for a moment, stop working! The festive season reminds us of the importance of connection, and connection is something enterprise educators excel at… usually without needing mince pies as an incentive (though they certainly help).

Throughout the year, colleagues across the UK have been busy crafting innovative learning experiences, hosting hackathons fuelled by caffeine and hope, and guiding students through the highs and lows of entrepreneurial discovery. From pitch events that finish with applause to workshops that finish with students asking, “Do we really need a business model?”, enterprise educators continue to bring creativity and opportunity to life. Christmas offers us a well-earned moment to acknowledge this brilliance.

This time of year is also about generosity, something the EEUK community masters better than Father Christmas himself. Our networks flourish because educators openly share tools, ideas and hard-won lessons. Whether you’re one of the 295 that attended one of our 8 Enterprise Exchange events, or one of the 45 that presented at IEEC 2025, your generosity of time and spirit is what strengthens our community. No sleigh required, just a willingness to help.

Of course, Christmas is not only for reflection; it’s also a springboard into the new year. And if there’s one thing enterprise and entrepreneurship educators understand, it’s opportunity. Whether navigating the rise of AI, evolving student expectations, or policy changes that appear overnight (and sometimes feel like they were written by elves), we continue to adapt with humour, resilience, and a healthy amount of creativity.

As 2026 approaches, at EEUK we hope your festive break brings rest, joy, and perhaps only light email checking. Thank you for the passion, kindness, and energy you contribute to EEUK and to the students and communities you inspire.  From all of us at EEUK, we wish you a joyful, sparkling Christmas and an enterprising start to the new year, may it be full of creativity, collaboration, and only the good kind of surprises.

Dr Emily Beaumont
Associate Professor of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, University of Gloucestershire
EEUK Director

As an eager Arts Foundation student back in 1985, I sat in the new TV and Video Editing suite at Cumbria College of Art and Design (now University of Cumbria) watching coloured pixels slowly building my portrait line by line on a screen. Perhaps I can claim it as an early selfie? It certainly seemed like some strange magic, my first taste of digital innovation. That moment from forty years ago stayed with me and influenced the choices I made later.

When I arrived at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University – NTU) in 1986 to study Fine Art, I chose it because it embraced multimedia, a bold move back then. Today, NTU’s Design and Digital Arts (DADA) building is packed with technology I could not have even imagined.

My next encounter with computer innovations was through Chris, my early adopter brother-in-law who went above and beyond, typing my words into an early Amstrad word processing machine as I dictated my Fine Art dissertation from my handwritten pages. He had a dot matrix printer, which was still churning out the continuous sprocket paper up until the time of the last train from Bristol Temple Meads back to Nottingham.

Despite the arduous task of separating each the sheet and tearing the perforations down the sides of each page, my finished document entitled “Female Sexuality and Biology: Fact, Fictions and Social Suppression / Oppression” made it to hand in two days later March 10, 1989.  I could write a whole other blog about how the pace of change for women hasn’t been quite so fast as for digital technology. The reason why creating the NTU Enterprise Female Founders Club supporting women in business matters so much to me. But back to the thread of my story.

I did not have access to employability or enterprise education at university in the 1980s, support which we now take for granted. When I graduated, I wanted to make a living from creativity but had little clue about business as a creative and had few role models. I tried a few things around the edges, before a “side hustle” was a thing, designing and making cards and prints for friends and family and creating a few commissions.

As an unemployed graduate, I signed up for a Chamber of Commerce course which gave me a grasp of basic trading concepts, and I wrote a pretty implausible business plan. That got me access to the government’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme: £40 a week to support early trading, if I registered as a sole trader and put £1,000 into my business (I borrowed this).

Digital print did not exist, offset lythography colour card printing needed big chunks of capital I did not have. I knew I needed to up my production for the numbers to add up so my saviour was colour laser copying. I was printing sheets of designs, hand-cutting and assembling elements myself!

However I soon realised I was not great at being a starving artist alone in a garret. I love food and people too much, so I pivoted to sharing my skills through workshops and later became an educator. My career and my creativity thrives on connecting and supporting others. I subsequently worked in museums and galleries and arts development before joining my alma mater NTU as an Enterprise Advisor on a programme called Enabling Innovation.

The Pace of Change

When I started my first business in 1990, I had no internet for research or marketing. Public Internet launched in 1991 and I encountered my first dial-up connection with a home PC sometime later, I can still hear the screeches and beeps as I write! Searching was through Ask Jeeves, arguably ahead of its time as a more relation style of search engine with a friendly butler character (The ChatGPT of its time!) eventually overpowered by Google.

Resources for creative entrepreneurs were scarce. Books like Pete Mosley’s Make Your Creativity Pay and T-Shirts and Suits by David Parrish came much later, texts I wish I had had (and written) earlier. I navigated change with gaps I now strive to fill for others. I ran my business for over twenty years, learning that adaptability is everything and making plenty of pivots along the way.

What Does this Mean for Us?

The Internet, digital tools and AI have changed everything. So, what is our role as enterprise educators now? How are we staying relevant? We cannot compete with the internet for information, but we can curate what matters and make it digestible. We can build confidence, helping our learners turn ideas into action. We can create spaces for collaboration, combating human homogenisation and creating places where diverse thinking thrives.

We also need to ask ourselves some tough questions. How do we design learning that feels relevant when knowledge is everywhere? How do we help students and graduates develop judgement, resilience, and creativity in a world where technology is moving faster than policy or ethics? These are the human questions that matter and I can’t find answers by running them through an AI.

So tell me what you are doing about it?

• Why are you in enterprise education?
• How are you designing innovative learning experiences for enterprise education?
• What are you learning from your students, graduates and colleagues?
• Where are you co-creating?
• How are you building confidence, creativity and connection?
• Where is innovation in your ecosystem?
• How are you supporting your team to thrive in this ever-changing environment?

I am delighted that Nottingham Business School here at NTU will host the 20th International Enterprise Educators Conference in 2026. I look forward to welcoming you to Nottingham, a city known for creativity, digital innovation and radical thinking.

The call for submissions to the conference will be coming soon. Be prepared to share your explorations in enterprise education. We may not have all the answers, yet, but our challenge is our opportunity to use our human skills together for the evolution of enterprise education.

 

After more than a decade of shaping enterprise education at Lancaster University and across the wider sector, Simon is stepping away from his role at Work in Progress, and into a bold new chapter with his wife, Charlotte, and their young family in France.

Both Simon and Charlotte have long been familiar faces in our community. Charlotte was among the first to complete the International Enterprise Educators Programme (NCEE), while Simon has been an influential presence in the EntreComp community and EEUK best practice events including  IEEC (who could forget PechaKucha Poetry?). Together and individually, they’ve embodied the spirit of collaboration, curiosity, and creativity that drives our sector.

At Lancaster, Simon leaves behind a legacy of innovation. From championing the Business Model Canvas to co-creating Ideas Labs, Innovation Fellowships, Startup Validation Programmes and ECHO (the Entrepreneurial Competency Heutogogical Organiser), he reimagined how enterprise education could look for all, through experimentation, creativity, and playfulness.

He also secured EEUK funding for several projects, including Black Swan, the intellectual property board game that brings play and creativity to one of the most challenging aspects of enterprise learning. Simon built a home for entrepreneurial learning at Lancaster; a community space where ideas grow, people thrive, and authentic learning by doing is celebrated.

Now, in true ‘walking the walk’ style, Simon and Charlotte are venturing into their own entrepreneurial project – establishing a sustainable flower farm in central France.

As one of my mentors often says when things are unfolding, ‘just keep doing the work’. We cannot wait to see what this chapter brings for Simon, Charlotte, and their family as their ideas and work take root.

We encourage colleagues to connect with them on LinkedIn to follow their journey; and who knows, perhaps, in the future, we will see Simon step into to shaping enterprise education in Europe, grounded in hands on entrepreneurial, sustainable, and very authentic learning by doing.

Amanda Brooks & the Work in Progress Team, Lancaster University

 

There’s something rather special about IEEC. Each year, enterprise and entrepreneurship educators gather together and suddenly, ideas start flying, collaborations spark, and the energy in the room feels a bit like someone’s just plugged the conference into the National Grid. But what really sets it apart is not just the buzz in the moment, it’s the way IEEC nurtures the community to look forward, grow stronger, and build better futures for our students and founders.

This year’s conference, IEEC2025, was no exception. If anything, it may have raised the bar yet again. Delegates described it as “inspiring”, “energising” and “the best IEEC yet.” Those words don’t just give you the warm fuzzies (though they certainly help soften the thought of the looming academic year). They remind us that this gathering is more than a conference: it’s a space that cultivates openness, learning and growth.

Claudia Filsinger from Creo Incubator captured this perfectly: “I’m really impressed by the collaboration, the sharing, the openness, and the future focus. Everyone is really thinking about how we can best support students and founders moving forward.”

That nurturing and future focus is what keeps IEEC so fresh. It’s not about self-congratulation, though there’s plenty to celebrate, but about turning to face the future and asking the big questions: how do we create truly inclusive enterprise education? How do we equip students for opportunities that don’t yet exist? And how do we nurture ecosystems where universities, businesses and communities work hand in hand?

Of course, nurturing doesn’t mean things are slow and gentle. IEEC is also about sparks and the lightning sessions brought exactly that. Asif Majid from Sheffield Hallam University summed it up: “Some of the sessions, particularly the lightning ones, were absolutely amazing… we learned so much from each other.” These rapid-fire exchanges are proof that short, sharp bursts of energy can also help us grow.

So, as #IEEC2025 draws to a close, what’s the verdict? The packed notebooks, LinkedIn love and smiling delegates say it all: IEEC continues to be a place where collaboration is nurtured, openness is celebrated, and the future is embraced with both optimism and determination. Until next year — keep nurturing, keep sharing, and perhaps start plotting your lightning talk now.

Dr Emily Beaumont
Associate Professor of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
Head of REF
Past President of Enterprise Educators UK
Vice President (Education and Practitioner Learning) of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Last month I was invited to join the EEUK Board of Directors to support a new MOU partnership with AGCAS, two memberships organisations which both hold a special place in my heart. I have spent 24 years working in Higher Education, 15 of those as a careers professional at University College Birmingham (our newest EEUK member), doing everything from providing information, advice and guidance to students, delivering workshops, helping with start-up queries and supporting employer events.  I then moved to Careers Network at the University of Birmingham in 2016, to my current role of Enterprise Educator, which is more academic facing, focused on embedding credit bearing, contextualised, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education into our degree programmes.  Two very different roles, but sharing the same purpose, supporting our students to be future ready, lifelong learners, developing the skills, competencies and behaviours for both employment and self-employment.

Bridging the Gap

Throughout my career I have accessed support and guidance from both membership organisations, but something I noticed was a gap when it came to accessibility of bespoke enterprise and entrepreneurship support for careers professionals.  So, when an opportunity came available to join the AGCAS Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Task Group, I applied and began working with an amazing group of individuals to work on bridging this gap together. Going onto to become Task Group Chair, we then began working closely with EEUK on several exciting projects, and so I’d like to give a big shout out to Gareth Trainer and Alison Price on getting those initial wheels in motion.  From that point, the relationship has gone from strength to strength, and through the collective efforts and support of many colleagues, we have reached the point of having an MOU in place.

This is an exciting time for members, this partnership brings the breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise across two organisations, something we celebrated and launched at the AGCAS Conference last month with CollabQuest.  To kick start our MOU we wanted our members to ‘experience’ positive, impactful collaboration as a route to help address shared sector challenges through the development of entrepreneurial competencies – rather than being told about the benefits of our collaboration we wanted them to experience it through interactive and experiential conference activities.  We all had a lot of fun (as you can see from the photos), it was great to speak with so many colleagues from across the sector about our collaboration, the current projects underway and ideas for the future.

The importance of community

Our networks play an important part in shaping how we develop professionally, so taking time engage with these and our colleagues is essential not only for continued professional development, but also for our well-being.  I can sometimes feel overwhelmed and struggle with imposter syndrome. When I find myself asking, “Helen, why are you putting yourself forward for things that make you feel overwhelmed and slightly terrified?” the answer is simple, I am surrounded and encouraged by such kind and brilliant colleagues and friends, both at work and through my AGCAS and EEUK communities.

What’s coming up next and how can you get involved?

We will be taking Collab Quest to the International Enterprise Education Conference (IEEC) in September!

Here AGCAS and EEUK will be delivering a Spotlight workshop on the 11^th September, in collaboration with Margaret Ochieng from Inclusive Village on the topic of Fostering an Inclusive Academic Environment.  This will be an interactive workshop format to provide time and space for meaningful discussions. We hope to see you there!

AGCAS & EEUK Jisc funded project on Empowering Careers Professionals in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship: A Training Resource Development Project

This project will provide you with an opportunity to help shape the future of enterprise and entrepreneurship training for careers and employability professionals.  A survey will be launching shortly, so please keep your eyes peeled so that you can include your response.

A brand-new Special Interest Group (SIG) for Careers & Employability Professionals

I will be launching this new EEUK SIG, joined up with the Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Task Group I currently chair for AGCAS.  Supporting the MOU we have, our joined-up SIG will focus on providing members with a range of activities, events and CPD opportunities.  If you have any specific thoughts and ideas on what you’d like to see, drop me a message!

Book contract with Elgar Publishing – ‘Enterprise and Entrepreneurship for Careers Professionals: How to develop Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education in a university setting’

Dr Emily Beaumont and I are editing a book together which is due out next year.  We are currently looking for vignette case studies to include within each chapter, so please do take a look and consider sending me an EOI.  More details can be found here: Call for Vignette Contributions – Enterprise Educators UK

EUniWell cocreation workshop in collaboration with Enactus

EUniWell unites eleven universities from eleven European regions in a cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary, knowledge-based perspective. Through a variety of outputs and activities, our alliance aims to inform decision- making, underpin education, training and skills development to have a measurable impact on European citizens’ well-being and quality of life.  I am currently exploring ways to bring EEUK into some of our alliance activities, one example being an upcoming cocreation workshop I am hosting at University of Birmingham.  This workshop is being co-designed and co-delivered with several colleagues, and good friends of mine from across the alliance this September.  If you have any questions, or want to find out more information, please see this link: EUniWell Co-Creation Workshop: Driving Engagement Beyond Borders

Final reflection

The above projects would not be happening without community and collaboration, and without the networks and friendships built from across the sector and within the membership organisations I am part of.  I feel lucky to be part of such forward thinking, innovative, friendly and inclusive networks, and I hope through reading this blog, some of these sentiments resonate with you as well.  Through unity and community, some of the best ideas and collaborations can happen.  So, if you have any reflections and ideas connected to the opportunities above, or new collaborative ideas that you would like to socialise, please do get in touch.

Anyone else ready for a break?!  Those in student-facing roles may be starting the wind-down for summer (although I suspect I am far from alone in noticing that magical summer ‘break’ and ‘winding-down’ time seems to get shorter every year) where often we find ourselves completing Exam Boards and looking to the near future of semester 1 starting again in just a few short months. Undergraduates disappear for the summer, the university spaces change, and we realise that all the projects we had imagined would all be tackled and completed ‘in the summer’ have an actual window of a few weeks. The cycles of academia, folks!

I recently had a conversation with a brilliant PhD student who expressed her concern for the state of academia in the UK right now saying, “I didn’t realise how bad it was!” – as someone with a successful professional career outside of academia, they were speaking about how from the outside looking in, the pressures and challenges placed on the way we work in academia, are not too obvious – until you have the view from within.   The torrent of budget-cuts and voluntary redundancies, funding stripping and in some rather painful cases, outright removal of enterprise and employability roles in many UK institutions (despite most institutional strategies centralising employability, enterprise and innovation) presents an uncertain and shifting landscape in higher education currently.  This is why I feel compelled to ruminate in this month’s Director’s blog and consider how we might try and do things differently…

What I mean when with ‘doing things differently makes a difference’ is multilayered.  It is the Mantra of the GETM4 project, wherein Entrepreneurship is more understood broadly as doing things differently to the norm, rather than solely tied to venture creation.  I want to give some space to some of the excellent activities going on in the project to share emergent insights around the potential for transformative action and working together across boundaries.  For the purposes of this blog (and my own perspective) however, I think the phrase extends beyond the incredible work in GETM4 and helps us unpack other things we are working on in EEUK.  For instance, what I know from my own experience is higher education is full of boundaries.  To be entrepreneurial in academia, I think this refers to working across (real or perceived) boundaries within and beyond higher education (HE), to enhance or create value.  The shifting landscape we work within places significant challenges on this.   As an enterprise educator having worked in the context of professional services and as an academic, I can appreciate some of the different challenges each type of role brings (there are quite a few of us on the EEUK board with similar experience – and some, all 3 of the EEUK role types) – but I also understand some of the different perceptions from each ‘camp’ that can perpetuate boundaries.  This, for me, underpins the imperative to do things differently, to work across and beyond (real or imagined) boundaries for our own sakes and importantly, for future generations.

GETM4: Doing Things Differently Makes a Difference

Just last month, I attended our Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management 4 (GETM4) research secondment in Warsaw, Poland.  The secondment provided yet another enriching experience in every sense and whilst I have commented on GETM4 project experiences in a previous blog, let me provide a little context to remind you.   Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management 4 (GETM4) is an international, interdisciplinary research and innovation project funded by the EU’s Horizon, UKRO, Polish Education Ministry, the South Korean Education Ministry and Korean National Research Foundation.  The premise of the project is Physical and Mental Wellbeing in a Disrupted World via Entrepreneurial Action Underpinned by Responsible Digital Innovation. The project is structured around traversing the boundaries around 4 key dimensions, making it Transnational, Trans-sectorial, Transgenerational and Transdisciplinary, engaging subjects such as business & management, law, information systems, computer science, political science, education, sociology, psychology, and economics.  The project harnesses a community of participants from 18 universities and industry bodies from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America with the Mission “to make a difference by collaborating across boundaries in a welcoming international team”.   In the image below, for instance, this photo from the Warsaw Sandpit Mid Term Review represents just a fraction of attendees at one of the biggest sandpits in the project yet – and includes project members from partner (non-academic) organisations, PhD students, early career-, mid-career-, and senior academics and HE professionals from across the globe. The image therefore represents a rich diversity of contributors to what was rather successfully, declared “the best mid-term review ever” and which warrants, I think some space to what the project is developing, early achievements and future project scope.

Figure 1: GETM4 Warsaw Sandpit Mid Term Review

One of our key work packages focuses on understanding Entrepreneurs as they navigate times of disruption and digitalisation, has so far amassed a collection of over 70 qualitative interviews from global locations (so far, Poland, UK, Ireland, Slovenia and South Korea – Estonia, Macedonia and Kenya will follow to complete the full dataset), which is a significant research project for contributors.  The project seeks to develop a handbook from this for entrepreneurs and educators to use – there are some fascinating case study examples emerging also – watch this space, as there will be plenty of useful resources generated from this work, that the EEUK community will be able to access! By utilising secondments and sandpits to engage in data collection, the project can generate insights from participants from across the globe but also provides the opportunity for those in earlier stages of their careers, to be part of an international team of researchers generating international data.  These sorts of project collaborations would typically take years to achieve and offer potential to be part of teams publishing from the data.  For those of you working in research and academic roles, you will understand how important this is in terms of meeting our metrics (more on this shortly!) and therefore the design of the GETM4 project offers such opportunities to professionals across the career stages, to work and learn from each other. Constructing the project in this way – and doing things differently, makes a difference.

Figure 2: GETM4 Strong Female Leadership – Kasia, Alison, Nada (from left-to-right)

One of the indisputable reasons why the project is so successful – in its design, development and delivery – is the leadership behind the project and the overall concern with equality, diversity, accessibility and inclusion. Pictured here are three central leads in the project team who have been instrumental in nurturing the project and its people, and core concepts  of Social and Cultural Capital that the project is constructed around, ensures that engaging with and learning from each other’s context and perspective are core to GETM4; one of the core work packages around Respectful Translation also ensures we learn from and consider the value of  insights from ‘not-so-obvious areas’.   Gender is also a key metric that is being monitored by the project so that accessibility to things like overseas research secondments can be equally accessed.  Often, travel is not possible without bringing family, and the support, kindness and flexibility that the project leadership and secondment opportunities offer, enhances the chance to take part.  Rather than such issues being in the background of international projects, GETM4 makes them of central concern – we talk, we share, we try new approaches to find what works.

Figure 3: GETM4 Warsaw collaborative sandpit activities in action

Of particular interest to the EEUK readership, I suspect, is one of the other core work packages within GETM4 on Innovations in HE curriculum to enhance ‘creative confidence’ and ‘entrepreneurial agency’.  This work package recently developed a report that showcases such innovations from project institutions and therefore a culmination of best practice from around the world.  We will be sharing some of these insights with the sector soon also – we have a whole host of activities developing new games and approaches to use in the enterprise education classroom – so, watch this space! Our intention here is that by sharing, we offer our communities ways to experiment and enhance the way we work with learners to prepare them for dynamic futures.

All-to-often, when we talk about wellbeing and enhancing capacities for dynamic futures, however (particularly in HE), we tend to focus on learners (students) and another way that GETM4 does things differently is to encompass a broader emphasis on ‘entrepreneurial talent’, which sits beyond entrepreneurs and students and explores academia and other industry sites to explore entrepreneurialism, wellbeing and happiness in the workplace.  I’m currently involved in undertaking some qualitative interviews around Entrepreneurial Academics and what helps/creates barriers for entrepreneurialism in academia (interested in taking part? Email me: victoria.mountford-brown@northumbria.ac.uk ) to explore experiences in different contexts.

Whilst we have an imperative to prepare the next generation of graduates for dynamic and uncertain futures, GETM4 also explores what will ultimately help those already working in HE – we are all, after all, lifelong learners ourselves – and I am quite hopeful that these projects will make a difference.  For instance, from my perspective one of the most exciting ongoing projects is around Next-generation metrics (see European Commission 2017) and the potential for developing meaningful metrics that incites support for and recognition of entrepreneurial and innovative achievements.  Francisco Pizarro from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (UAI), our Chilean project partner organisation, is leading on a live project, exploring how UAI academics across different subject disciplines might engage with new generation metrics, that are meaningful to them and their work.  All-to-often our time must be devoted to achieving the metrics that we depend upon for funding, but GETM4 is exploring if these metrics are fit-for-purpose.  If, for instance, we are chasing ‘high impact’ publications as a key metric, where do we find time to focus on allowing our entrepreneurial activities to flourish?  How can we publish in ‘high impact’ journals in Entrepreneurship, as a relatively new discipline? Where do we find time for external engagement and enhancing our teaching? We do we find time to create, develop and launch new resources and educational products to enhance our abilities and ways of working together? If such activities are not recognised as valuable, when they are exactly the type of activities that make a difference, what can we do about that? GETM4 is taking on these tough challenges and by doing things differently, seeks to make a difference.

The role of the enterprise educator is dynamic – we need to do things differently…

One of the (only) downsides to attending Warsaw GETM4 Sandpit this year for me, was the clash with 3E Conference in Munich this year, where our very own Dr Emily Beaumont took the opportunity to pitch our paper on the ‘mission creep’ of enterprise educator roles and only went and won an award!  The ‘3E Catalyst Awards’ and the pitching of papers is a new and different way of doing things for the conference and providing the opportunity to share paper insights with an audience beyond standard conference tracks, in a different format – the design of this is a means of reaching more people and creating impact (doing things differently makes a difference!).

Figure 4: Dr Emily Beaumont pitches “Negotiating the Responsibilities of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (EE) Educators: Ethical Dilemmas and Professional Practice in UK Higher Education” for a 3E Catalyst Award

The paper that Emily pitched draws on data from 2 EEUK commissioned surveys with UK-based enterprise educators and centres around data that demonstrates between 2020 and 2023 survey data collection points, that the scope of enterprise educators’ roles continues to shift.  This ‘mission creep’ that requires us to constantly adapt to the changing demands of the role and the world we live in, is significant.  The skills and competencies, required for the amorphous enterprise educator role, are everchanging and throughout the ongoing ambiguity and shifts brought about by external factors, we are required to adapt and upskill, often at pace.  We are, according to our very own Catherine Brentnall and the Special Issue editorial team, in a ‘time between two worlds’ in entrepreneurship education (see: Entrepreneurship Education in a Time Between Worlds: Transforming Theory, Practice and Scholarship).

Never have we needed so much to work collaboratively and to do things differently.

Figure 5 – AGCAS & EEUK Gen-AI Action Figures – representing our collaboration

On the day this newsletter and blog is released, we will be attending the AGCAS Annual conference at Newcastle University, where we are planning to do things a little differently too.  Rather than preparing a presentation to explain why we developed our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together in partnership, and to work smarter together, we will be challenging attendees to start collaborating during the conference and take part in a special quest…. No more spoilers for now – our rather brilliant Helen Hook will give you the full run-down of the event in next month’s Director’s blog – so don’t miss it and we hope to connect to some of you attending this year’s AGCAS conference, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Know anyone that is doing things differently and making a difference?  Consider applying/nominating for the National Enterprise Educator Awards – deadline 23^rd June!

GETM4 project socials: LinkedIn ; Facebook ; Insta: @getm4_d3 ; Tiktok: @getm4team

Six years ago, I found my tribe. It started as a small group, just seven of us, bound by a shared desire to understand the impact of enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE). The Impact Research Group was made possible by an Enterprise Educators UK (EEUK) Impact Grant, to explore personal self-assessment tools for EEE competencies. However, what began as a research project quickly became something more: a thriving community of scholars, practitioners, and educators all dedicated to understanding and shaping the future of EEE.

Today, we are 60 strong, spanning 5 countries. We have collaborated, debated, laughed, and grown together. We have produced impactful research and, most importantly, supported one another in our lives and careers. This journey has reaffirmed something I deeply believe in, the importance of finding and nurturing your tribe and how important this is for growth, not just professionally, but personally.

Why Finding Your Tribe Matters

Enterprise education is, by nature, interdisciplinary and dynamic. It requires a mix of skills, perspectives, and experiences that no single person can master alone. Having a strong tribe provides:

• Collaboration and Innovation: The best ideas emerge when diverse minds come together. Our group has expanded research in ways none of us could have achieved alone.
• Support and Motivation: Research (and education) can be isolating. Your tribe lifts you when imposter syndrome creeps in, celebrates your wins, and challenges you to push further.
• Opportunities and Growth: From joint publications to events and conferences, our group has helped to find opportunities for members to learn and develop together.
• Belonging and Purpose: There’s something powerful about being part of a group that shares your passions. It gives meaning to the work and makes the journey more enjoyable.

How to Build Your Tribe in Enterprise Education

If you’re looking to find or build your own research or professional community, here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way:

• Start Small, Dream Big: The Impact Research Group began with seven people and a shared research focus. We didn’t anticipate growing to 60 members across the globe, but we stayed open to opportunities and invited like-minded individuals to join us.
• Seek Out the Curious and Passionate: The best collaborations come from those who are genuinely interested in the field. Find people who ask big questions, who challenge existing thinking, and who bring enthusiasm to the table.
• Leverage Existing Networks: Whether through EEUK, conferences, or social media, use existing communities to connect with others who share your interests. Often, your future tribe members are already in adjacent spaces, reach out to them!
• Create Opportunities for Engagement: Tribes don’t form by accident. Schedule regular meetings, collaborate on projects, host informal discussions, and share resources. Connection grows through shared experiences.
• Be Generous and Supportive: Give more than you take. Celebrate others’ successes, offer feedback, and be the kind of collaborator you’d want to work with. A strong tribe thrives on mutual support.
• Embrace Growth and Change: Our group looks very different from when we started. New members bring fresh ideas, and the scope of our work has evolved. Be open to where the journey takes you.

Finding your tribe in enterprise education, or any field, is about more than networking. It’s about building relationships that inspire, challenge, and sustain you.

I am endlessly grateful for the people I’ve met through the Impact Research Group. They have shaped my thinking, expanded my opportunities, and, more than anything, made my work deeply fulfilling. If you haven’t found your tribe yet, keep looking. And if you have, invest in it, it will be one of the most rewarding things you ever do!

Dr Matt Rogers-Draycott
Associate Professor in Innovation Management, Birmingham City University
EEUK Director

Language is powerful. The words we choose to try to engage and educate in the entrepreneurship field can either invite or alienate.

When I set out as a creative graduate, wanting to make a living from my creativity, the language of enterprise and entrepreneurship was not even on my radar, let alone in my lexicon.

I had a basic understanding of what working for myself would mean, but only because I had an older friend who had a business. I had to get help to understand how to set up as a sole trader. I registered as self-employed; I used the term freelancer to describe some of the work I did, and a portfolio career was familiar to me.  It would be a while before any digital space existed and titles such as digital nomads and remote workers were coined, never mind labels such as side-hustler, solopreneur, or slashie!

Becoming a Babel Fish

Having subsequently worked across the creative, education and business sectors, I soon learned how important it was to find ways to understand and speak the right language in the right context. It confirmed my belief that finding a common language is important.

I have often called myself a Babel fish. In Douglas Adams’ book, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the Babel fish is a small, yellow, leech-like creature that plays a crucial role in intergalactic communication. When placed in a person’s ear it allows the host to instantly understand any spoken language, making it a universal translator.

Just as the Babel fish translates languages, I have translated business concepts into accessible language for those that I have supported in working for themselves. I have supported creative artists, and makers in my previous role in arts development (and suggested they should be encouraged to embrace the C word, commercial, in their practice, that is another blog as yet unwritten!).

Enterprise Adviser is in my job title here at Nottingham Trent University. I prefer this to being labelled a business adviser because for me, my role encompasses generating interest in enterprise and entrepreneurship and the skills and competences that encompasses for life, including the crucial competence self-confidence and self-efficacy, whether that leads to venture creation or not.

Creatives and Change Makers, Beyond Business Equals Pursuit of Money

We need to connect with our creatives and spark the curiosity of our social scientists by speaking their language, talking about the context of their industries, and helping them to discover and work with their values to harness their enterprising tendencies. It is crucial that we are offering a broader vision of what an entrepreneur looks like. When exploring freelancing we must challenge and ditch the “just a freelancer” when we hear it (again a whole other blog!).

I advocate strongly for the definition of entrepreneurship at the heart of of the EntreComp framework “Entrepreneurship is when you act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others. The value that is created can be financial, cultural, or social”

This gives us the opportunity to go beyond business as being merely about making money for money’s sake (though if that is where your values lie, then that is a route you can take, mine suggest it may be a little soulless) I believe that whilst not everyone can be an entrepreneur, everyone can be entrepreneurial.

Owning Entrepreneurial Language

As educators we need to;

• translate business concepts into language that resonates with students and graduates from different schools

AND

• encourage ownership of entrepreneurial language to describe the skills and competences being expressed in the various sectors in which they will be operating

I believe that doing both in tandem, we will create a more inclusive and engaging learning environment and dispel the toxic stereotypes around how an entrepreneur looks, sounds, and behaves.

Will you join me in becoming a Babel fish? Together, we can navigate the entrepreneurship ocean and create a more inclusive environment for us all.