Enternships Blog
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Hot Enternships of the WeekPosted on Monday 22 August 2011 at 11:06AM by rajeebdey |
Check out this week's newsletter featuring our 10 Hot Enternships of the Week and details of the StartUp Britain Summer Bus Tour which starts today.
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Hot Enternships of the Week & StartUp Britain Bus TourPosted on Monday 15 August 2011 at 09:37AM by rajeebdey |
Click here to check out this week's Hot Enternships as well as details of the StartUp Britain Summer Bus Tour.
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AMMT Fellowship/Hot Enternships of the WeekPosted on Tuesday 02 August 2011 at 07:50AM by rajeebdey |
Check out this week's newsletter where we unveil who our inaugural AMMT Fellow is!
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From Aid to Trade: Changing the Africa narrativePosted on Sunday 24 July 2011 at 11:19AM by rajeebdey |
2 countries in 2 days – a relentless programme packed with meetings with Presidents, MPs, business leaders and the media – all part and parcel of being on a Prime Minister’s delegation.
I was fortunate to be accompanying the Prime Minister David Cameron, Lord Green (Minister for Trade & Investment) and Andrew Mitchell (Secretary of State for International Development) on a business delegation to Africa. It included CEOs of some of the UK’s leading blue-chip corporates including Bob Diamond (CEO of Barclays PLC), Ian Powell (Chairman, PriceWaterhouseCoopers), Steve Ridgway (CEO of Virgin Atlantic), Mark Price (CEO of Waitrose) and Vittorio Colao (CEO of Vodafone). There were also SMEs represented such as Monitise and FrontlineSMS as well as a 20 strong press pack of journalists who all boarded the chartered Virgin Atlantic jet on Sunday evening. First stop – Johannesburg.
Landing at around 6am in Johannesburg – our first engagement was a breakfast briefing at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria. We arrive with 15 minutes to spare – we pile into the Spa / Gym changing rooms to get into our suits and ready for the breakfast briefing with the South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies when Minister Davies spoke of the formation of a South Africa – UK Business Council to strengthen links and dialogue between our nations.
Briefing complete, next stop was the Union Buildings to meet President Zuma. We had arrived on a very special day – Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday; celebrations were taking place outside the buildings and there was definitely an upbeat party atmosphere all around. Following a Press Conference with the Prime Minister and President Zuma (at which the media raised the inevitable questions on News International and the Libyan crisis) we were off to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for a panel discussion and lunch with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
At this event the Prime Minister stressed the fact that trade need not be a ‘zeo-sum game’ and that both South African business and British business can truly benefit from doing business with each other. When a Daily Mail reporter tried to ask about the phone hacking issue once again the audience jeered – it was clear that the South Africans didn’t want the focus of the trip to be derailed. Despite this the Prime Minister responded and brought us back to the matter at hand – growth through entrepreneurship and an agreement that by 2015 bilateral trade between SA-UK must double. When asked by an audience member what the private sector in South Africa can do to bolster enterprise support the Prime Minister gave a plug for StartUp Britain – as an example of a private sector led initiative to boost entrepreneurship.
At around 330pm we made our way to the airport to head to Lagos, Nigeria. At this point we were informed on the flight that the Prime Minister had decided to cut short the visit and that we would be leaving Lagos early afternoon given the situation unfolding back home. Landing at 11pm that night it was straight off to the hotel .The roads were all closed for our convoy which ensured we arrived in record time and were able to get some much needed sleep.
We had an early start on Tuesday morning with a briefing with UKTI Nigeria officials followed by an event with the Governor of Lagos and Governor of the Central Bank at the Pan African University (Lagos Business School). Here the Prime Minister spoke of his admiration for the work being done to tackle corruption and strengthening of democratic processes in Nigeria. This was followed by lunch with President Goodluck Jonathan and his Cabinet officials at State House. The whole visit was extremely tightly choreographed as soon as the formalities and speeches were done it was back in the coaches and off to the airport for our flight back home.
I left Nigeria with a very different impression than one I’d gone with. With limited knowledge of the country and economy (my only experience being as a recipient of scam emails telling me I’d won obscene amounts of money) I was leaving Nigeria with a sense of immense optimism. The newly elected Nigerian government officials made their intentions clear – aid will be invested in infrastructure projects, tackling corruption and that Nigeria will very much be one of the major African economies to watch.
There has been a lot of talk in the media about whether the Prime Minister was right to go to Africa at a time of political turmoil in Britain with the News International debacle? Absolutely; and I’m glad that the Real Business readers poll supports this (61% of you agreed that promoting UK business should be his number one priority .)
It is ludicrous to think that just because the Prime Minister is not in the country he cannot continue to fulfil the duties he needs to remotely. Having a press-pack of 20 or so of the world’s top journalists follow you around also ensures you’re constantly pressed about the domestic issues surrounding Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation and the so-called “hackgate” scandal. As an entrepreneur I too didn’t stop my business activities just because I was in another country (I admit I’m semi-attached to my Blackberry). Likewise the Prime Minister was able to conduct press briefings on the plane, during his visits in South Africa and Nigeria as well as communicate with his team at No 10 to ensure he was kept abreast of all the developments.
At a time where the UK economy is facing high levels of unemployment& bleak growth prospects its essential that we send a signal to the world that British businesses are ready and able to trade with emerging economies and to ensure British companies do not miss out on the significant opportunities presented by the growth of the African economies.
When we think of Africa it is all too easy to think of just poverty and aid. Whilst there are still challenges in the Continent in terms of improving its standards of living, food crisis in Sudan, political insecurity in Zimbabwe, Africa still presents a huge opportunity for UK businesses. Africa has six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world and is predicted by some to have the highest average GDP growth in the world over the next 40 years. Juxtapose this with little or no growth in the UK economy – it is clear that British businesses need to ‘go global’ and tap into the African opportunity.
In fact despite Enternships.com being a start-up itself we have just launched a microsite for South Africa a few days ago and very much hope to play a part in the burgeoning entrepreneurial African ecosystem. In the short time I was there I was approached by people who are keen to set up similar initiatives to StartUp Britain in both South Africa and Nigeria and it became clear to me that we need to change the narrative surrounding Africa. Africa is very much open for business – the question is – will you be part of the growth story?
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Are you "Up for Hire?"Posted on Wednesday 20 July 2011 at 14:55PM by rajeebdey |
Are you out of work? Are you …. Up for Hire?
A new BBC documentary series is looking for BBC3 viewers who are talented individuals and who are desperate to start a new career.
- Are you a school leaver or college graduate?
- Would you like 40 years career experience in four weeks?
- One that may lead to contact with prospective employers in the near future?
Whilst we cannot guarantee anyone involved in this series employment, we hope that the experience will be an invaluable one.
If you would like to know more contact us on: 0207 067 4827
Email: upforhire@loveproductions.co.uk
Or follow the link below to apply online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/beonashow/up_for_hire
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Enternships in the MediaPosted on Thursday 23 June 2011 at 10:46AM by rajeebdey |
It's been a bumper day for press coverage of Enternships with us being featured in four separate publications.
The first is The Independent newspaper which talks about my speech at the Association of MBA's Convention in Geneva, in an article entitled: "Why MBAs will have to adapt to survive"
The second is a feature for The Financial Times in which they look at the issues of Unpaid Internships and some of the issues potential interns should be aware of in the article "Hard word doesn't always pay"
The third is a feature in Startups.co.uk about The Rise of the Young Entrepreneur in which they feature 3 young entrepreneurs in their 20s.
Finally there's a feature in Marketing Donut on "should you pay for an intern?"
Let us know what you think about the issues covered in these articles either on our blog or on our Facebook Page.
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Hot Enternships of the WeekPosted on Monday 20 June 2011 at 16:54PM by rajeebdey |
Check out this week's Hot Enternships
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Do you want to be one of the 'faces' of "Entrepreneur First"?Posted on Monday 20 June 2011 at 16:37PM by rajeebdey |
Enternships.com is proud to be a Founding Partner of Entrepreneur First alongside McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Tesco, BNP Paribas, BT, Cisco, Qualcomm, Intel, Civil Service Faststream, L’Oreal, Allen & Overy, Diageo, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Shell, RBS and Silicon Valley Bank. The initiative was announced by the Prime Minister David Cameron at the end of March to coincide with the launch of StartUp Britain.
Enternships will be supporting the campus recruitment and promotion of the programme and as part of this we're working with Design & Marketing agency City & Law who are hosting a photoshoot on Friday 24th February in East London.
We're looking for University students/recent graduates to be photographed in an entrepreneurial/startup environment (location will be disclosed later). If you think you've got what it takes to be one of the 'faces' of this new national programme and are free to attend a photoshoot on Friday 24th June between 10am - 2pm then please send a headshot of yourself to: marisa@cityandlaw.com who will be in touch with more information. It should be a fun day!
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Making the most of University lifePosted on Sunday 12 June 2011 at 20:23PM by rajeebdey |
This week's guest blog is from Iosif (Joseph) Vitalis (pictured below), a First Year student at Queen Mary University. In his article he talks about how students should make the most of their time at University - a time to explore and upskill yourself and urges fellow Undergraduates to utilise their time at university wisely.
University students are blessed. Truly, the fact of the matter is that they are blessed in so many ways that they occasionally tend to forget that the whole world is in their hands and the only thing left undone is to reach and grab it. It is the first time in our lives where we get to enjoy this feeling of unparalleled freedom and of course get immersed and become active members of society, constantly researching and trying to come up with new, innovative ways to make the present more efficient and the future more prosperous.
Despite this we have to acknowledge the fact that we are faced with a great deal of responsibility - a responsibility to do well and get a job afterwards. Many students realise this early on and do their best to develop a decent CV that will someday enable them to create the career of their dreams. This type of responsibility is perhaps the most burdensome due to the fact that the only person held accountable for your eventual success will be you and you alone. Ultimately you reap exactly what you sow.
One thing is for sure; there is no need to panic. You are walking along the path that has been already explored by millions. Arguably, times change and so do the required skills and competences necessary to enter an industry but everything is already there for us. Nowadays, the concerned student knows that he/she has to work hard to secure that specific internship position, build their professional profile on LinkedIn and wrap it all up with a good 2:1 (or above) degree with a fair amount of voluntary work too! The most important thing to bear in mind though is that this opportunity comes just once in a lifetime and the time to take action has already arrived. Our lives cannot wait for the graduation day.
Here is what you should expect to gain by exchanging 2 or 3 months of your summer break for an internship. First off, you will have the chance to learn things that otherwise you wouldn’t. Going further from just putting theory to practice (like for example in numerous labs within the academic institutions) you will have the real deal right in front of you. You will get hands-on experience in your selected field, you will learn for all the different aspects of each business and how all these come together to eventually form a functioning organization. In addition, through the networking opportunities you will start building up your contacts list which will stand you in good stead for the future.
Being of Greek origin, I come from a country where internships are seriously under-appreciated and –of course- as a First Year undergraduate at university I am facing these very issues myself. What makes things easier here in the UK is the fact that the necessary infrastructure is already in place, ready to assist you in your journey. My suggestion is that you should enjoy each and every step in this process and as Constantine Cavafy reminds us in his poem Ithaka, always remember that happiness is about the journey and not the destination.
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NACUE launch nationwide University consultationPosted on Monday 23 May 2011 at 00:02AM by rajeebdey |
The National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) and Lloyds Banking Group have partnered to deliver an exciting research project on ‘Developing Entrepreneurial Students & Graduates’, that will entail a National Road Trip visiting 10 leading university incubators across Britain. Supported by the University of Hertfordshire, the research project will engage with students and graduates so as to understand their views on enterprise education and business start-up support available through university incubators. The consultation and research exercise will be the largest ever conducted within the UK.
The National Road Trip will run over two weeks in late May to early June and findings will be presented at a major economic policy conference in London in September. Throughout the National Road Trip, NACUE and Lloyds Banking Group will be running a series of interviews, focus groups and enterprise forums within each incubator. These will be complemented by an online survey directed towards student and graduate entrepreneurs.
Through the online survey and interviews with incubator managers, the research will seek to understand the extent and value of services being delivered to student and graduate entrepreneurs through incubators. Focus groups with students and graduate entrepreneurs will then seek to understand their views on enterprise and entrepreneurship and how they wish to receive enterprise education and business start-up support within universities.
Finally, at each incubator NACUE and Lloyds Banking Group will host an Enterprise Forum that brings together students, educators and the local business community to discuss the changing relationship between education and business, and how best the local business community can engage universities and students to better support enterprise education and young entrepreneurs. The Enterprise Forums will include local MPs, representatives of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and local business networks.
Commenting on the announcement, NACUE Policy Director Matt Smith said: “With youth unemployment at a record high and student expectations set to rise with increasing tuition fees, it is critical that we engage students' views on how they wish to receive enterprise education and business start-up support within universities.
This is the largest consultation of its kind ever undertaken and it will add significant value to the wider discussions taking place within universities and at a national level, around how best to improve the student experience and support nascent entrepreneurs.”
Tour Schedule
27th May - London South Bank University
31st May - University of Plymouth
1st June - University of Glamorgan
2nd June - Coventry University
3rd June - Nottingham Trent University
6th June - Manchester Metropolitan University
7th June - University of Central Lancashire
8th June - University of Edinburgh
9th June - Teesside University
10th June - University of Huddersfield
Student, entrepreneurs and business owners wishing to get involved in an Enterprise Forum can apply by contacting: Matt Smith, NACUE Policy Director: matt@nacue.com
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