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Tell your students about Action for Social Enterprise

19 Oct 2011

A unique event on 25-26 November at Chancellors Hotel providing students with a valuable opportunity to get real life business experience.

In today’s competitive environment, with more graduates entering the workplace and more start-ups springing up than ever before, getting a degree is no longer enough to secure a future career.

There are many questions they need to ask:

  • How will you set yourself apart from everyone else?
  • How do you define your own direction and make the system work for you?
  • Should you work for someone else or for yourself?
  • How will you make a difference?  

The University of Manchester is working in partnership with Social Solutions Academy to deliver Action for Social Enterprise on 25 and 26 November 2011, at Chancellors Hotel, Manchester. This is a unique event in the North West, run for and by social entrepreneurs, providing a valuable opportunity for students to get real world experience, boost their prospects and gain new perspectives so that they can make more informed choices.

Over  two days delegates will have the chance to get stuck into a range of workshops, talks and games that will inspire, challenge and provoke new ideas:

Growth Zone

Offers the chance to learn new skills in 14 enterprise workshops, focusing on both business and personal development, from starting up to financing an enterprise. Run by cross-industry experts, delegates will work on examples relevant to their social business and will be guided to key actions that can be implemented to have an immediate impact!

Inspiration Zone

Hear Lord Mawson, OBE, and one of the foremost UK social entrepreneurs talk about what it takes to bring communities together and make a lasting impact. Fay Selvan, CEO of the Big Life Group, will share her successful journey to help inspire and motivate you to reach your goals! And you can take part in innovative workshops such as the Big Resilience Game or the Social Media Game.

Investment Zone

Learn how to successfully pitch for investment whether it is for less than £10k or more than £1m; covering common pitfalls, how to structure your presentation, how to understand the psychology of investors and how to support this with the right documents.

Manchester students who attended last year's Action for Social Enterprise event have seen many benefits. Moheeb Abualqumboz, a postgraduate researcher, will be running a workshop on partnership development following connections that he made at last years’ event. Other students have gained internships within social businesses giving them tangible evidence for their CV’s, and others have been able to apply the learning to develop their own ideas – winning student enterprise competitions and awards.

And it’s not just students that need to look outside the academic environment. A pressing issue facing lecturers working in Higher Education today is bridging the gap between real world relevance and the academic vision.  

We all recognise business and social pressures are mounting. We have seen traditional free market models found wanting and big government deemed too expensive and too ineffective. So it’s time to look at another way of making society work. It’s all about practical action and support, influencing others and developing ourselves to make this world a better place for everyone.

With the support of some of the leading practitioners and thinkers in this area there will be a day-long public sector workshop - How to make a square peg fit a round hole: creating new models for public services - to flesh out a new model for commissioning that will be fit for purpose and identify the critical success factors and essential competencies needed to deliver social services more effectively.

If you are thinking about making a difference to the world, want to get real life business experience and learn new skills or make interesting connections that can help you progress academically, personally or in the working world, then Action for Social Enterprise is for you!

For more information: