Louise Flower, a third-year student from the University of York, has secured a place in a global enterprise competition involving 8 entrepreneurs from around the UK. The Global Start Up Challenge is run in conjunction with Alibaba, the world’ts largest online meeting place for Entrepreneurs and SME’s, and the second largest IPO to Google.
Louise has been selected to represent Yorkshire in the challenge, and—with her initial £1000 investment—has set up her own trading business which sells creative, useful items to students and small businesses.
As the only student in the competition and also the youngest competitor, Louise has decided to focus on goods for the student market. She has sourced her products through Alibaba and feature an emergency charger (compatible with most portable electronics including phones, mp3 players and cameras) and a new and exciting product: the Mobile Note Taker.
Louise's primary product, the Mobile Note Taker
As her primary product, the Mobile Note Taker is an innovative and highly useful item aimed primarily at the student market. The judges were very impressed by this choice of product as it satisfies a clear gap in the market, but is not yet widely distributed in the UK. It works just like an ordinary pen, but whilst making paper notes the pen also captures the page digitally. The student can record up to 100 pages of A4 notes or drawings, which can later be downloaded onto a laptop to be stored, edited and converted into standard text!
Louise also plans to sell this new product to retail outlets and small businesses. The pens will be on sale at the University of York for a promotional price until the end of January, and will be widely available online and at York Student Market.
Louise is a member of the York Entrepreneurs’ Society, as well as a student intern at York WRCETLE. You can track Louise’s progress online as she implements her business strategy and begins trading between October and the end of January 2010. The final winner of the competition will receive a £10, 000 business grant to invest in the start-up company at the end of the trading period. To track Louise’s progress online, and to vote for her business, visit www.globalstartupchallenge.com!
The Department of Philosophy has recently established a Centre for Research into Imagination, Creativity and Knowledge (CRICK). Led by Dr Mike Beaney, its aim is to stimulate innovative research in the Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology and Aesthetics by bringing together philosophers, researchers in other disciplines and members of the wider community. It will focus on understanding the nature of creativity and innovation, their relation to the imagination, and their role in developing and extending the frontiers of human knowledge in the arts and humanities, the sciences, and business.
The Centre has received funding from the WRCETLE for a project entitled ‘Promoting Innovation and Creativity Across Sectors and Organisations’ (PICASSO) to develop a portfolio of materials to support courses on creativity and innovation. The plan is to offer a core module exploring different conceptions and theories of creativity and innovation, with a further project module that can be adapted to the needs of different departments and outside users, allowing those taking the module to look at innovation and creativity in their own subject area or workplace.
Mike Beaney has had an interest in creativity for a number of years. He is the author of Imagination and Creativity, a course book he prepared for the Open University which was published in 2005. He has taught topics concerning imagination and creativity at both undergraduate and postgraduate level since he arrived at York in October 2005.
Anyone who is interested in the project is encouraged to contact Mike Beaney at mab505@york.ac.uk.
Students learned first hand about the rare book industry
How is literature marketed? Who controls its value? To what extent do authors cater for an audience? These are just some of the questions posed by ‘The Culture Business’, Prof Jane Moody’s module for second year English and Related Literature students. Providing an academic approach to the publishing, bookselling and print media industries, the module offers students a chance to gain an insight into one of the most popular yet competitive industries around. Looking at works from the Romantic period to the present day, students are invited to study the ways in which authors have interacted with the contemporary literary marketplace.
As a result of York WRCETLE sponsorship, students taking the module in the summer term had the opportunity to meet key industry players and find out how they achieved success. The literary—or culture—industry is notoriously difficult to break into and thus the chance to learn from people directly involved was invaluable. Isobel Dixon, from Blake Friedman, provided an insight into the importance of the literary agent in today’s publishing industry. Lisa Chaney, a successful biographer, inspired potential authors in the group when she talked through the research and creative processes that go into the creation of a successful biography.
The module countered the notoriously metropolitan nature of the literary industry through trips to some of York’s culture businesses. Of particular note was a visit to Spelman’s, the renowned rare and second-hand book shop on Micklegate. Students gained an insight into independent book selling and were treated to anecdotes about literary finds by the owner. A visit to the York branch of Borders provided a more modern example of bookselling. Students learnt about the marketing of books, and were given a sneak peak at the Amazon Kindle e-reader before it hit the shop floor.
The module proved a huge success.
Hear from the students and their tutor first hand:
Article written by Helen Citron, originally published in Enterprise focus.
To help English Literature students consider their future employment options, the careers service has set up an innovative new project: The E-zine. Student teams compete through two pitching sessions for £2000 of CETLE-provided funds in order to design, write, launch and distribute an electronic (online) magazine, or e-zine. The aim of the project is to create a specialist publication but also to explore the employment possibilities that an English Literature degree provides.
The Career Service’s Kate Copland is behind the project. She says that the idea for the project arose when ‘careers advisers noticed that many English students feel unsure about what career path to take’ and ‘wanted to do something especially for English students to help them engage with the idea of career planning, but also give them an opportunity of developing more employability skills through participating in the project’.
The project allows participants to develop a comprehensive array of skills. As well as journalists, each team requires project, finance, marketing, IT and events managers. This builds skills in areas such as budget management and business planning which would not normally be developed within the student’s degree course. Participants also have the opportunity to attend teaching sessions from industry professionals and are advised how best to incorporate their new-found skills into their CV.
To hear more about the project from the 2008 student team, and project developer Kate Copland, please watch our feedback video.
Tony Ward, York director of WRCETLE has lead the development of ‘Enterprise’, an enterprise-based curriculum module for Engineering students. The module uses the stage-gate model to lead students through the process of developing an idea commercially, from concept to business plan.
In the video below, Tony gives an overview of how the module was created, and what students’ first impressions have been.
One interesting feature which sets this module apart from others, however, is the way in which students have been engaged—the module was partly developed by students. Anna Bramwell-Dicks discusses the module which she co-developed—and sat!
To take a traditional viewpoint, it might seem odd for a student to develop a module—let alone take it afterwards. However, by embracing the skills which students possess—not to mention their unique insight—to create something in an innovative way, this module is unarguably deserving of its title, Enterprise!
WRCETLE embeds enteprise into the curriculum by developing modules in partnership with departments and members of academic staff. If you are interested in curriculum development opportunities at Leeds, Sheffield or York, please contact WRCETLE.
York Biochemistry graduate Kenneth Cheung is receiving media coverage for his social enterprise, BEEcycle Ltd, and its range of products and services, which make it easier to recycle food waste.
Kenneth founded BEEcycle after graduating from the University of York, where he showed a keen interest in enterprise. The company produces a range of high-tech products to help people compost and recycle food waste, including the OvO—a self-watering plant pot which produces its own compost naturally! BEEcycle also engages businesses and the community through a recycling education programme.
With environmental issues more important than ever, BEEcycle is a promising and exciting new company—Kenneth has been interviewed on BBC Radio, and was a finalist in the Enterprising Young Brits competition—but what sets it apart is its combination of technical knowledge (after graduating from York, Kenneth went on to win a business competition held by Lancaster Environment Centre, where he founded the business with their support) with practical sense. With continued success Cheung has recently won the top prize in the Manchester heat for The Pitch 2009, and will compete for a business support package worth £50 000 in the final round in November. Many people are put off home recycling because they perceive it to be inconvenient and difficult—regardless of whether this is well-founded, it is clear that one way into the home recycling market is through accessibility. Composters which don’t smell or require sorting of waste, and self-watering plant pots may well attract custom from the 70% of households who do not currently recycle. Similarly, the lesson plans and interactive section on BEEcycle’s website make it easy for primary schools and parents to provide children with fun environmental education.
With fears over the fates of community recycling programs in the current economic climate, it is easy to be pessimistic about reducing waste—but as a social enterprise with commercial promise, the future is surely green for BEEcycle.
Painting by Richard Barnes, from exhibition entitled "Reflections on a Voyage"
Langwith Arts is the brainchild of Dr John Issitt, Provost of Langwith College. In a bid to redevelop his college as a dynamic and cultural hub, 2006 saw the first Langwith Arts Festival – a series of student-organised events over a May bank holiday weekend with a theme, ‘movement’. A varied programme incorporated Dance, Pantomime, Afro-Caribbean and Juggle Societies, a Jazz band, a Barbershop quartet and a group of break dancers. It was novel and well attended, and Issitt’s hopes seemed to be coming into fruition.
CETLE helps students to get involved with enterprise
The University of York has an excellent reputation for teaching and learning across a range of academic disciplines so it was logical for us to approach the growing demand for enterprising graduates by looking at our existing strengths. We believe that enterprise and innovation are concepts that are too important to be confined to business schools and York is a leader in developing teaching and learning based firmly in the curriculum of traditional academic subjects. Activity in this area got underway in 1999 with the support of the then DTI’s ‘Science Engineering Challenge’ funds which enabled science academics to develop teaching that asked students to consider the knowledge and skills of ‘how to get things done’ in the application of their discipline. Read the rest of this entry »
York Entrepreneurs—York’s student-run enterprise society—hosted a well-planned and original enterprise competition in November: The Blueprint. The competition ran over four days, and saw six student teams of four testing and developing their enterprise skills in two original challenges, based around the themes of toys and artwork for children. The competitition offered not only a handsome first prize of £750, but also the chance to work with experts in the areas of branding, marketing and innovation—and to learn from their advice and feedback. Read the rest of this entry »
The IBM Universities Business Challenge is the premier business simulation competition for all university undergraduates in the UK who want to have a life-changing experience. The IBM UBC is a true learning experience for all those who enter. Commencing in October each year, the competition helps students improve their decision-making skills, develop their team-working abilities and increase their knowledge of key business areas such as marketing, finance, production and human resources.
Last year saw two of Sheffield’s three teams get through to the semi-final stage of this competition. Due to this success in 2008 we have entered six teams and so far all the teams appear to be doing well. We will have to wait and see how well the competition continues to go for them. Good luck to Sheffield!
Posted by White Rose CETL Enterprise 
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