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Postgraduates use Lake District for social business inspiration

16 Jul 2014

A group of enterprising postgraduate students have taken part in Manchester Enterprise Centre's sixth annual enterprise summer school in the Lake District on 7 – 10 July

Six postgraduates

Thirty postgraduates from all faculties of the University used the local area as their inspiration to create a viable commercial or social business idea. Tutors from Manchester Enterprise Centre and the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences introduced topics such as opportunity spotting, market research, intellectual property and finance as well as networking and teamwork.

However, the emphasis was firmly on practical application and so the students spent much time gathering information in the nearby towns of Ambleside and Bowness, including speaking to local residents and businesses for some detailed market research. Areas such as the seasonality of tourism, the local nuclear industry, transport problems, affordable housing, local produce and the brain drain of local young people were enthusiastically investigated by the attendees and several excellent ideas were created. 

During the final stages of the idea development, guest entrepreneurs were on hand to help. Nick Henderson, a Manchester alumnus and founder of The Printers Inc, Monique Anderson, runner up in this year’s Venture Further social category, and Amy Win, runner-up in 2013, also inspired students by describing their own journey to creating their ventures. 

The winning business idea, as voted by the course tutors based on the idea itself and the skills of the pitching team, was a social enterprise called Thrill that trained unemployed local people to teach certified climbing courses in the area. 
 
Organiser and lecturer in enterprise Dr Robert Phillips said: “The course provides a set of skills practised in a real environment which students can now use when looking for opportunities in their own research, or more widely”.