Capital Enterprise is asking all members and partners to refer anyone who has graduated from university in the last 10 years and wants to set up a business, especially if it is creative or innovation focused, to Capital Enterprise. Capital Enterprise is partnering with its university members, including University of Arts and University College London (UCL), to promote and support a number of initiatives designed to help graduates who want to start a business to gain first hand experience, access expertise and even obtain small amounts of start-up money.
A prime example is the 2010 Immersion Programme run by University of the Arts London and delivered by Central Saint Martins Innovation. This part-time six week programme helps graduates accelerate their career progression within the creative industries. It enables them to explore ways to exploit their creative potential and develop the personal and professional skills necessary to translate their creative vision into a viable business or career. The Immersion Programme is led by professional coaches, creative specialists and creative trade insiders who are used to working for well known ‘blue chip’ clients. Those who progress through the programme and go on to start a creative business also receive an opportunity to be mentored by an industry expert.
Capital Enterprise has secured a number of places on the Immersion Programme for pre-start entrepreneurs who have been referred or sourced from Capital Enterprise members. The Immersion Programme is not funded by the London Development Agency, so there will be no funding or output issues for members who refer suitable clients from the Business London Programme or from those who have previously been on a “Fashion” or “Creative” training courses.
So if you do have any clients who want to get the opportunity to get supported by Europe’s leading and best connected arts based university, then please ask them to complete an application form.
Capital Enterprise’s university members have recently been awarded by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), funding to train, place and fund over 1000 graduates to take up 8-12 week internship in SME’s in London. These programmes run from February to September 2010 and the universities involved include UCL, University of the Arts, London South Bank, London Metropolitan, University of East London, University of Westminster and Royal Veterinary College.
The interns are paid by the university whilst the employer will only be asked to make a very small contribution (a few hundred pounds) to the cost of employing a good quality and pre-trained intern for 8-12 weeks. Also, the employer will get the chance to interview and select candidates for the internship position prior to appointment. If they are not suitable you do not need to take them.
Consequently, there are three things that we are asking Capital Enterprise members and partners to consider if they want to be involved in these programmes:
- Do you want an intern? If so please let me know, remembering that you need to be a SME and the better the project or task you want the intern to do the better the quality of intern you will attract.
- Are you interested in partnering with a university to offer interns to your SME clients? It could be very good way of adding value to the services a Capital Enterprise member offers their SME clients. If you are interested please let me know and I will arrange the introductions.
- Can you refer unemployed graduates who are interested in paid internships to the universities? It may only be me thinking aloud, but I think it would be great if we could give graduates who want to start their own business, an opportunity to work with and for a real world entrepreneur. I understand their will be commercial confidentiality issues that we will need to overcome, but is there a better way to understand how to set-up and run a business than first hand experience? If you are interested in setting up an internship programme for unemployed graduates who want to become entrepreneurs then please let me know.
Finally, there are also a number of other programmes and opportunities for graduates who want to become entrepreneurs that I will be announcing on this blog in the next few weeks. So please, if you have clients or people you know who may be interested then, get them to check out this blog.
Tags: Graduate Enterprise
