Young graduates are fuelling a rapid increase in the number of startups, partly because highly paid jobs in finance and law are hard to come by, but also because UK universities are setting up enterprise centres and postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship.
Katie Norman, 28, left the University of Hull with a MSc in chemistry, and now runs her own company, Lab Rascals, which provides science parties and after-school science clubs. Norman was offered a global entrepreneurial course by the university, paid for by European regional development funds.
“I had the idea, but I didn’t have a clue what to do,” she says. “Others on the course went on to set up businesses. One has an organic pet food business; another a social media advertising company.”
The university’s enterprise centre organises an annual summer school on practical entrepreneurship, project development and creating a business plan. The success of such initiatives goes some way to putting to rest the argument about whether entrepreneurship can be taught or whether it is something you’re born with.
The postgraduate diploma in entrepreneurship at Cambridge University’s Judge business school is the equivalent to two-thirds of a master’s degree. Joanna Mills, the programme’s director, says: “We deal with everything from coming up with an idea to its execution. Students on the course range from fresh graduates who have decided to have a try at enterprise, to people planning to launch a business.”
With fees of £11,500, the course is part-time and mainly online, but includes residential workshops. Georgina Hemmingway, 35, has signed up because she wants to scale-up her idea for cafes that use their profits to fund local community projects. Hemmingway, a former political researcher, co-founded the New Leaf Book Cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
“I had thought of doing an MBA, but I needed hard core skills,” she says. “The course has been really useful and I’ve met others doing social enterprises. I start crowdfunding next month.”
Michael Krayenhoff completed an MSc in entrepreneurship and innovation at the Royal Holloway, part of University of London, and went on to co-found the Inner Circle, an exclusive dating platform with 60,000 members.
“The course gives you an understanding of what elements are required for a successful startup,” says Krayenhoff. “But you need to make it happen.”
Flexible needs: ‘The course forced me to reflect more on what I’m doing’
Matthew Ford, 28, is taking a postgraduate diploma in entrepreneurship at Cambridge University’s Judge business school
I did a degree in history at Durham University, but even there I was always dabbling with digital projects that never made any money.
After graduating I went into strategy consultancy for four years. My next move to DMG Media kickstarted an interest in pursing a career as an entrepreneur.
My role in the company’s strategy team included launching new ventures. The most successful was a personal finance app, On Trees, which was eventually sold to MoneySupermarket.com.
I left to set up Pariti and signed up for the PGDip at Judge, which is online with residential sessions. The diploma is flexible, which is what you need when you are running a startup.
Pariti, is a fintech start-up that helps people out of high-interest debt. We help build consumer creditworthiness and improve access to fairer rates of credit.
The thing I found most valuable about the course is the focus on “building the entrepreneur”. It forced me to reflect more on what I am doing. But I also got useful advice on how to position the company, particularly when we were raising investment funds.
- This article was amended on 16 June 2015 to remove a reference to East Anglian unemployment.
Keep up with the latest on Guardian Students: follow us on Twitter at @GdnStudents – and become a member to receive exclusive benefits and our weekly newsletter.
