News and events
Recent news and events
For details of our future events please see here
HEA-BMAF Entrepreneurials Learning Workshop
Following on from discussions at the International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference in Heriot-Watt University in September 2009, this event gathered together as many stakeholders as possible to discuss the potential for a new subject benchmark statement or similar guidance for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship educators. What became clear is the level of professionalism and dedication that underpins and drives this agenda. The question as to whether or not our ‘profession’ needs a nationally consistent statement of guidance to help support and develop new enterprising teaching methods was the focus of enquiry. Below, Alison Price of the NCGE sums up some of the responses from the day.
Andy Penaluna, Chair HEA-BMAF Entrepreneurial Learning SIG
Quality and assessment rarely excite. However it is clear that these are now key issues within entrepreneurship and enterprise education.
Such subject maturation is clearly welcomed by new-to-enterprise educators as well as the experienced, as the need to raise the profile and standing of our approach is widely recognised across the sector. Educators are keen to validate and professionalise the knowledge and skills they create in others, as they excite entrepreneurial outcomes in others. Both enterprise and entrepreneurship education lacks specific academic reference points which are now limiting progress and development within Higher Education. The risk of becoming “all things to all people” - as enterprise is distorted to mean anything “new” or risky in educational endeavours - can dilute our work and leave us open to concerns regarding of quality and rigour.
It is also critical that as we build self-efficacy and confidence in our students they are clear as to what they have experienced, learnt, been, seen and felt as ‘entrepreneurs’ within the ‘safe’ and bounded environments of learning. It is apparent that the route of creating “enterprise by stealth” is a non-productive one as graduates need to be able to take their entrepreneurial mindset and skills outside the university, knowing they can transfer them.
Such clarity is also key for employers. To recognise and recruit appropriate intrapreneurs is dependent upon entrepreneurial graduates being able to articulate and create entrepreneurial outcomes beyond the classroom and know they can transfer this learning in the workplace.
The time is clearly right for shaping and creating a quality framework for enterprise and entrepreneurial education.
However we must ask if this risks everything we are seeking to create? Will such frameworks limit the creativity of educators and encourage a tick-box culture? Will it restrict curriculum change and fix practice? Will this stagnate our developing discipline and limit our thinking? Is this anti-entrepreneurial by its very nature?
With these risks identified, it is clear that the positives outweigh our concerns. Educators need the support that frameworks can provide within their curriculum change to further entrepreneurial education into new disciplines and areas. It is possible to shape effective levers for change which will support educators as they seek to create entrepreneurial outcomes through innovative practice, assessment and pedagogy. No-one wants rigour and quality more than those who teach their students and this call, coming from our educators, it is a testament to the work of educators across the UK that enterprise and entrepreneurial education is “coming of age” across the UK.
Alison Price - Director of Educator Development National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship.
For more information, powerpoints and images from the event please go to the heaacademy web site.
Photos from the day are in our photo gallery.
Learn with Leeds Met
Student Enterprise Pioneer Matt Spencer and Institute for Enterprise Project Officer Liz Carter were involved in the successful delivery of workshops as part of 'Learn with Leeds Met', a Yorkshire-based project using sports stadia to take informal learning into the heart of the community.
Leeds Met won £68,500 of funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) under the Learning Revolution Transformation Fund to deliver free skills sessions to people who have been hit by the economic downturn.
The project aimed not only to provide an introduction to learning to those who are unemployed or disengaged with education, but also to highlight progression routes for adults in partnership with Regional University Network (RUN) colleges.
Liz and Matt delivered learning sessions to inspire participants to start their own businesses at venues across the north of England.
Visit by University of Hawassa
Academic staff from the University of Hawassa in Ethiopia visited the Institute for Enterprise on Monday 22nd February 2010.
Enterprise with a Conscience - Special Interest Group
The Enterprise with a Conscience Network: Introductory Meeting was held on Wednesday 27th January 2010 at Old Broadcasting House. The introductory meeting formed the launch of the special interest group focused upon social enterprise and sharing ideas about how we can foster enterprise through community projects and partnerships. The meeting will included a workshop to stimulate interest around corporate social responsibility with Marcus Jamieson-Pond, CSR Manager for Addleshaw Goddard LLP.
As part of the launch, The Institute for Enterprise ran a competition to win a £50 voucher whereby 100 word entries were submitted detailing ideas for social enterprise. The winner was announced as Amy Soyka a student who came up with a fantastic idea to recycle stationery.
Speaking regarding the competition, Amy said,
Photos from the event can be seen here
HE Social Enterprise Awards
For more information on these awards link to the HEFCE awards website here
We received a great response to out Enterprise Footprint Competition which closed at the end of October. Photo entries which represented enterprise footprints on the world were submitted by staff, students, RUN partners and schools and the judges had a difficult time deciding between the excellent submissions.
Shaping Quality and Assessment in Entrepreneurship Education
HEA-BMAF Entrepreneurials Learning Workshop
Following on from discussions at the International Entrepreneurship Educators Conference in Heriot-Watt University in September 2009, this event gathered together as many stakeholders as possible to discuss the potential for a new subject benchmark statement or similar guidance for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship educators. What became clear is the level of professionalism and dedication that underpins and drives this agenda. The question as to whether or not our ‘profession’ needs a nationally consistent statement of guidance to help support and develop new enterprising teaching methods was the focus of enquiry. Below, Alison Price of the NCGE sums up some of the responses from the day.Andy Penaluna, Chair HEA-BMAF Entrepreneurial Learning SIG
Quality and assessment rarely excite. However it is clear that these are now key issues within entrepreneurship and enterprise education.
Such subject maturation is clearly welcomed by new-to-enterprise educators as well as the experienced, as the need to raise the profile and standing of our approach is widely recognised across the sector. Educators are keen to validate and professionalise the knowledge and skills they create in others, as they excite entrepreneurial outcomes in others. Both enterprise and entrepreneurship education lacks specific academic reference points which are now limiting progress and development within Higher Education. The risk of becoming “all things to all people” - as enterprise is distorted to mean anything “new” or risky in educational endeavours - can dilute our work and leave us open to concerns regarding of quality and rigour.
It is also critical that as we build self-efficacy and confidence in our students they are clear as to what they have experienced, learnt, been, seen and felt as ‘entrepreneurs’ within the ‘safe’ and bounded environments of learning. It is apparent that the route of creating “enterprise by stealth” is a non-productive one as graduates need to be able to take their entrepreneurial mindset and skills outside the university, knowing they can transfer them.
Such clarity is also key for employers. To recognise and recruit appropriate intrapreneurs is dependent upon entrepreneurial graduates being able to articulate and create entrepreneurial outcomes beyond the classroom and know they can transfer this learning in the workplace.
The time is clearly right for shaping and creating a quality framework for enterprise and entrepreneurial education.
However we must ask if this risks everything we are seeking to create? Will such frameworks limit the creativity of educators and encourage a tick-box culture? Will it restrict curriculum change and fix practice? Will this stagnate our developing discipline and limit our thinking? Is this anti-entrepreneurial by its very nature? With these risks identified, it is clear that the positives outweigh our concerns. Educators need the support that frameworks can provide within their curriculum change to further entrepreneurial education into new disciplines and areas. It is possible to shape effective levers for change which will support educators as they seek to create entrepreneurial outcomes through innovative practice, assessment and pedagogy. No-one wants rigour and quality more than those who teach their students and this call, coming from our educators, it is a testament to the work of educators across the UK that enterprise and entrepreneurial education is “coming of age” across the UK.
Alison Price - Director of Educator Development National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship.
For more information, powerpoints and images from the event please go to the heaacademy web site.
Photos from the day are in our photo gallery.
Learn with Leeds Met
Student Enterprise Pioneer Matt Spencer and Institute for Enterprise Project Officer Liz Carter were involved in the successful delivery of workshops as part of 'Learn with Leeds Met', a Yorkshire-based project using sports stadia to take informal learning into the heart of the community.Leeds Met won £68,500 of funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) under the Learning Revolution Transformation Fund to deliver free skills sessions to people who have been hit by the economic downturn.
The project aimed not only to provide an introduction to learning to those who are unemployed or disengaged with education, but also to highlight progression routes for adults in partnership with Regional University Network (RUN) colleges.
Liz and Matt delivered learning sessions to inspire participants to start their own businesses at venues across the north of England.
Visit by University of Hawassa
Academic staff from the University of Hawassa in Ethiopia visited the Institute for Enterprise on Monday 22nd February 2010.
They spent the day sharing practice in enterprise education with staff from the Institute.
The staff from Hawassa are involved in a British Council funded project which links staff at the University of Leeds in a project called “Engendering Entrepreneurship for Ethiopia”. As a linked CETL we were asked to share our views and approach in enterprise education with the staff from Leeds and Hawassa.
Colleagues from the Faculty of Business and Law, the Business Incubator (QU2) , the employability department and the Leeds Met Business Start Up unit also contributed to the discussion. At lunch, some of the student enterprise pioneers joined the group and discussed their role and activities.
Enterprise with a Conscience - Special Interest Group
The Enterprise with a Conscience Network: Introductory Meeting was held on Wednesday 27th January 2010 at Old Broadcasting House. The introductory meeting formed the launch of the special interest group focused upon social enterprise and sharing ideas about how we can foster enterprise through community projects and partnerships. The meeting will included a workshop to stimulate interest around corporate social responsibility with Marcus Jamieson-Pond, CSR Manager for Addleshaw Goddard LLP.
As part of the launch, The Institute for Enterprise ran a competition to win a £50 voucher whereby 100 word entries were submitted detailing ideas for social enterprise. The winner was announced as Amy Soyka a student who came up with a fantastic idea to recycle stationery.
Speaking regarding the competition, Amy said,
Watch this space for further news relating to the special interest group!“I used to horde stationary a while back, and I just happened to be having a clear out at the time of the competition. I think my frustration came from not being able to get rid of it, because I knew it was still use-able. Thankfully I managed to get rid of it, but the idea has remained lodged in my brain because I know that stationary costs so much, yet so little of it is actually used, plus there are people out there who need it. Wherever there is a need you can form a business/organisations to meet them”.
Photos from the event can be seen here
HE Social Enterprise Awards
For more information on these awards link to the HEFCE awards website here
One of the highlights of Global Entrepreneurship week has been the visit (20th November) from academic representatives from six Kenyan Universities via an educational link from a British Council project coordinated by the York St John University.
The visitors are students themselves, undertaking their own post graduate certificate in Academic Practice.
Mutual practice and potential project ideas were exchanged and new links made. Laura Mason, one of the student enterprise pioneers, talked interestingly about her role. Karen O’Rourke and Sue Smith outlined the curriculum based work that the Institute undertakes and promotes.
The group then joined a lunch which celebrated the launch of the Creative Enterprise programme run by Rebekka Kill. During the lunch, Stephen Griffiths from the Business Start-up unit announced the prize winners for the business idea competition.
Global Entrepreneurship Week enables us to put the spotlight on enterprise, opening up new opportunities for people across the country and the world. During the week a number of events were held at Old Broadcasting House which allowed to to celebrate and promote enterprise skills and entrepreneurship.
The Faculty of Arts & Society's Rebekka Kill has fought off fierce competition and been granted an AHRC Small Grant.
On Wednesday 21st October Suzy Alderson, Executive Director of the Young Peoples Enterprise Forum, and Jane Walton, Head of the Make Your Mark Campaign for Yorkshire and Humberside visited Old Broadcasting house to speak to an audience of students, staff and external guests about current Enterprise Campaigns such as Make £5 blossom, Make your Mark with £10 and Turn your Passion into Profit. They also presented their research findings on Entrepreneurial Behaviour, posing the question – is entrepreneurship nature or nurture? 
Thursday 16th July was a useful chance for core CETL staff and colleagues to meet for team building, networking and project work planning.CETL staff analysed their Continuing Professional Development needs and team working skills in the morning. Visitors and new enterprise project holders then joined the team for an informal lunch.
Ben Taylor is studying for an MA International Business and reflected on the Strategic Management of International Enterprises (SMIE) module led by Garry Carr.
Lizzie Hancock studied the Small Business and Enterprise module within Leslie Silver International Faculty as led by Stuart Moss.
Christopher Matthews of Innovation North Faculty studied the Innovation & Enterprise module as led by David Griffin.
Lee Griffiths, who has strong connections to the Institute for Enterpise CETL, has won an award for his promising small business. He runs a fruit and vegetable stall in Holbeck Community market aiming to provide affordable, locally-sourced food at discount prices in Holbeck, one of the most deprived areas in the country.
Regional University Network graduate, Wilma Stone held an exhibition, Modern Counterfeits – An Exhibition of Urban Contemporary Ceramics at Old Broadcasting House in partnership with the Institute for Enterprise and the Regional University Network. 
Students from across the Faculty of Business & Law celebrated their achievements on Monday 18 May at the 2009 Student Achievement Showcase. The exhibition style event displayed a plethora of student work at the Rose Bowl, the new home of Leeds Business School.
Academic staff gathered at a learning lunch hosted by the Institute for Enterprise CETL in the new Rose Bowl to hear Professor Mick Healey discuss the best ways to engage in research and inquiry. He discussed the links between research and teaching and explored the full variety of different views in the literature on the subject. Attendees were encouraged to explore ideas through case studies and examples cited at the lunch.
Alex McWhirter, the Assistant Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward, visited the Old Broadcasting House on the 24th March to share his experiences and explain how he sees the future of Enterprise in the Yorkshire & Humber.
As part of the Carnegie Celtic Festival 2009, the Institute for Enterprise hosted FÁILTE an event to celebrate, communicate, stimulate and generate approaches to Assessment, Innovation, Learning, Teaching and Enterprise that impact on the student learning experience. 
The Institute for Enterprise welcomed Todd Hannula from the Camberwell Project. 
Where's your Head At, a one day entrepreneurial event, took place at Old Broadcasting House. Students received advice on entrepreneurship, creativity and problem solving.
Kathryn Riddle from the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority visited the Institute for Enterprise on the 18th February to deliver a heartfelt message about equality within the varied duties that are obligatory in the NHS.
Karl Milner, the Director of Marketing and PR for the Yorkshire & Humber region, visited Old Broadcasting House on the 5th of February to discuss his take on Enterprise in the NHS.
Leo Hanna, leads Microsoft's Security and Systems Management businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He visited Leeds Met to present the first in a series of 'Master Classes' supported by the Institute for Enterprise.
The diversity of enterprise education activities and enterprise research within the university was well-represented by the programme devised for a one-day conference which I had the pleasure of organizing as part of the university's Enterprise Week.
As Enterprise Week 2008 drew to a close colleagues from across the university, as well as alumni, representatives from local business and other institutions, joined us in Old Broadcasting House for an inspiring full-day event highlighting enterprise in the curriculum.
Wednesday 19th November 2008 saw Ben Keene, social entrepreneur and co-founder of Tribewanted present an inspirational talk at Old Broadcasting House as part of Leeds Met's Global Entrepreneurship Week. Ben discussed his experience of establishing an online community and simultaneous eco-tourism project in Vorovoro, Fiji.
On Thursday 13th November students participating in the Young Enterprise Company Programe attended an Awareness Event at the Institute for Enterprise which would support them in setting up their own student companies. The open plan setting of Old Broadcasting House was an ideal venue for these students.
On Saturday 9th August, Liz Carter, Project Officer with the Institute for Enterprise, and Su Robinson, Project Officer from within the Community Partnerships & Volunteering team volunteered to support a recent Leeds Met alumni in running the 2008 Holbeck Gala. 
Over 30 sixth form students from Woodhouse Grove School came to Old Broadcasting House to enjoy a fun and interactive day of problem based learning activities on the subject area of enterprise and business strategy.
During the 2008 Graduation ceremonies at Headingley Campus, a number of Leeds Mets' students have been receiving special awards for their enterprising skills. 
The Institute for Enterprise welcomed Enterprise Educators UK to Old Broadcasting House on 18th June in order to host a joint best practice workshop regarding engaging students with enterprise education initiatives and the use of branding and identity.
The Young Enterprise West Yorkshire Company Programme Finals this year took place on 15th May supported by the Institute for Enterprise . Three companies from across West Yorkshire came Leeds to represent their areas, compete to be the best in the county and to go on to represent West Yorkshire at the Regional Finals. 