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.