Global Business Challenge 2023

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Global Business Challenge 2023

The end of another incredible Global Business Challenge! GBC2023 has been the biggest so far, with 250 participants, 34 multi-national, multi-cultural teams, 17 international businesses, 32 team coaches from 12 HEIs from around the world. Different undergraduate and postgraduate students from different degrees in countries such as UK, USA, Ecuador, Finland, Tanzania, Lithuania, Germany or Hungary have worked together to provide value and solutions to a wide range of business clients working in different areas and sectors. UWE Team Entrepreneurship students were involved in 5 different teams and a team coach from the programme was coaching in a 6th team. 

The students shared their reflections in the final pechakucha presentations, and it was clear they got a lot from it! It was great to see how many students were fully focused and adopting a business oriented professional approach in their journey. They learnt about how to do business internationally, how to work in international teams with challenging coordination and time zone barriers, how to do consultancy work and communicate and negotiate with clients, how to project manage and plan, or how to cultivate their empathy and patience with each other.   

“I learnt how to work internationally to solve a real-life business issue, how to work online more efficiently, how to navigate different time zones within the team and with the client and how to adapt the skills and teamwork from TE when working with new people” 

GBC TE participant

Many clients were really impressed with the results and offered to continue working with the students after the challenge. That is the best indicator! We look forward to GBC2024! 

Team Entrepreneurship supports Game Changers

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The Team Entrepreneurship programme (TE) within Bristol Business School has recently invested £2500 to support its students, known as Team Entrepreneurs, in starting or further developing social enterprises and projects with social impact. Finalists in the TE Game Changers Fund competition pitched to a panel of social enterprise experts and four winners were awarded funding to take their project or venture to the next level.

The expert panel comprised of Enterprise Consultant Callum Usher-Dodd, who heads up UWE’s Student Ventures team; Nicola Telford, founder of social enterprise Views for Change; Camilla Elwood, Portfolio Manager for social enterprise charity UnLtd and Lucas Paes Gomes De Oliveira, Student President of UWE Enactus.

The winning projects/ventures were: PAVE, a mental wellbeing service providing resources for schoolchildren; organic clothing brand Organiko; Ocean Raye, a company that creates jewellery from upcycled sea glass while also carrying out beach cleans and Healthy Life Original, a start-up focused on physical health and wellbeing. Varying amounts of funding have been awarded to support the social entrepreneurs at different stages in their journey.

Kiera Hellard, founder of Ocean Raye, received funding for a silversmithing course to help improve the quality of her jewellery, thus further contributing to its sustainable credentials. Reflecting on the pitching process and the outcome of the competition, she commented:

“I’m so pleased and excited to be able to take this silversmithing course to improve my jewellery. All of the feedback received has been really helpful. I’d like to say I thought the process was great as well. It was really beneficial pitching to a panel, as it gave me an opportunity to practise my pitching and was great meeting people external to Team Entrepreneurship. I hope this is something the programme continue offering in the future as I think it could really benefit Team Entrepreneurs and might encourage more social enterprises within our community.” 

Kiera Hellard

Feedback from other finalists echoed Kiera’s comments that pitching to an external audience and receiving feedback from experts in the social enterprise domain was invaluable. Commenting on the competition and the support that was offered to Team Entrepreneurs, panellist Camilla Elwood, of UnLtd said:

It’s really encouraging to see the university supporting social enterprises in this way. The students are lucky to have such a supporting department.”

Camilla Elwood

The Team Entrepreneurship programme is delighted to have been able to offer this support to the social entrepreneurs within its community and hopes to inspire more Team Entrepreneurs to pursue projects and ventures with social impact in the future. Bringing external expertise into the programme helps to ensure that our Team Entrepreneurs are developing the knowledge and skills needed to solve real-world problems.

Student Enterprise Scholarships a huge success

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The UWE Enterprise Skills Team in collaboration with The Faculty of Business and Law at UWE Bristol provided 16 Summer Enterprise Scholarships in 2020 to enable undergraduate and postgraduate students to develop an idea or venture.

The programme was divided into two strands:

  1. The Start-Up Scholarship; aimed at students with an idea for a business or social enterprise.
  2. The Impact & Innovation Scholarship; aimed at students with enterprising projects such as community projects and public engagement.

Faculty funding covered an initial 10 Scholarships with additional funding provided through Student Experience as part of the Vice-Chancellor’s ‘finishing well’ initiative. Alongside this, a new Accelerator fund sponsored by Santander Universities was launched which provided 2 high achieving FBL Scholars with additional grants of £2,500 to boost their project post-Scholarship.

As part of the programme each student received £1000 in funding, 1:2:1 support from the Enterprise Skills Team, weekly seminars, an external mentor and access to the Student Ventures Incubator digital co-working spaces.

The Accelerator Fund winners were FirstGens, Clink & Drink Mobile Bars and Velvaere Studios Ltd.

FirstGens aims to support those who are the first of their family to go to university and they used the scholarship to build a website, conduct market research, set up social media channels and more.

Clink & Drink Mobile Bars caters to weddings, celebratory events, small-scale festivals and corporate engagements and the scholarship enabled them to purchase a horse trailer to convert into a mobile bar, build a social media following and create successful collaborations.

Velvaere Studios is a home gym design and equipment fit out company and throughout the scholarship they were able to work with an interior designer to create a design inspiration book for home gyms, created and distributed marketing materials and established supplier partnerships.

Student feedback

“I really enjoyed the workshop sessions run by the enterprise team. I always learn something new about the topic of the week. I also really enjoyed interacting with the other scholars and learning about their journeys so far.”

FBL student on the Start-Up Scholarship

“I enjoyed seeing my idea become a reality. I enjoyed making contacts with people that are company directors and the fact when they heard my idea they were so happy to be speaking to me and I felt like they really cared and appreciated what I said.”

FBL student on the Impact & Innovation Scholarship

 “The classes and lunch and learn sessions have been fantastic, I’ve really enjoyed being able to attend daily webinars and learn so many different things each day. There was a real community feel amongst the group, which has been great for helping me stay positive and for interacting with everyone.”

FBL student on the Start-Up Scholarship

All Scholars were invited to contribute to a Scholarship to share their achievements as part of the celebration of the 2020 cohort. You can view the Yearbook here.

Celebration Event and Student Case Studies

To mark the end of the 2020 Summer Scholarship programme, Scholars, Mentors and Staff were invited to a Celebration Event (recording of the event can be found here). A representative Scholar from each Faculty shared their Scholarship journey with the audience. You can hear from the FBL Scholar, Katie Hounsham (final year, Business Management and Marketing) here.

UWE Bristol wins Guardian Award for Equity Programme

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We were delighted to be finalists at this year’s Guardian University Awards but are over the moon to have actually won! This award means so much to everyone who’s been involved in developing and delivering the Equity Programme ever since our first pilot event in October 2016. It’s been a long and sometimes challenging journey to introduce a progressive positive action scheme like this. Working with students, local employers and national diversity thought leaders, we’ve created something which the University can be really proud of and which offers BAME students a chance to leverage leadership and enterprise skills as they embark upon their graduate careers. 

The Equity programme has 4 pillars: 1-2-1 mentoring, identity and leadership coaching, enterprise education workshops and large evening networking and guest speaker events. National statistics on the performance and progression of ethnic minorities in the labour market (as highlighted by the MacGregor Smith Race in the Workplace Review 2017) have to change and we are proud to be leading the way on the role universities can play in this regard. Finally, we want to thank every facilitator and the external guests who attend our events and enrich our student experience.

Equity evening events run throughout the academic year and are open to the public to attend. We warmly encourage alumni to consider attending the evening events to give our students networking opportunities as well as being part of the collective challenge to diversify the talent pipeline. To find out more please visit www.uwe.ac.uk/equityor email raceequality@uwe.ac.uk

Post written by Dr Zainab Khan- Equity Programme Lead

Take advantage of degree apprenticeship SME funding with UWE Bristol

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15 May 2019 15:00 – 17:00

Register here

Are you interested in upskilling your workforce and does the cost of training seem a barrier to accessing local talent?

This event provides an opportunity to hear first-hand accounts from existing businesses who have apprentices at UWE, and how to make it work. In addition to this, we will be highlighting upcoming degree apprenticeships and further opportunities for your business to train your employees at degree level with the funding available.

UWE Bristol is the only university in the region with funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to support non-levy employers and has secured funding to support apprentices from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

David Barrett, Director of Apprenticeships at UWE Bristol, will welcome you to the event and alongside the Degree Apprenticeship Hub team will be able to help identify your training needs and suitable solutions.
Spaces are limited for this event, so please register below.

If you have any questions about this event or degree apprenticeships please feel free to contact Ellen Parkes.

We are looking forward to meeting you and beginning the degree apprenticeship partnership journey.

The event takes place in the University Enterprise Zone on Frenchay Campus from 15:00 – 17:00.

Register here

BLCC Annual Review 2018-19

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We are delighted to share with you the Bristol Leadership and Change Centre Annual Review 2018-19.

This annual review has been compiled to give an insight into some of the key projects we have been involved in over the past 12 months, as well as new and emerging initiatives. Find out more about the events we run here at UWE Bristol Business School, some exciting conferences taking place later this year and our latest publications.

As ever, there is always much more that could be said but hopefully this will encourage you to find out more.

Contents

Applied research and external engagement                                         

Leadership and followership in a complex and changing world   

  • Building Leadership for Inclusion
  • The Transforming Construction Working Group (TCWG)

Cultures of leading and organising 

  • Assembling life in the Borderlands
  • Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Bristol Business School Building

Behaviour change and social influence    

  • ‘Revaluating’ Physical Activity in Schools
  • Taking forward Wheels, Skills and Thrills
  • End of life care and advanced care planning

Leadership and organisational learning and development

  • Empowering entrepreneurship of prisoners
  • Organization Development for Malaria Elimination
  • The Bristol Leadership Challenge
  • Leadership for Improving Frontline Talent

Teaching and Learning    

  • Leadership and management courses
  • Leadership and Management Degree Apprenticeships

Seminars and events  

  • Developing Leadership Capacity Conference
  • Becoming enterprising: a collaborative workshop
  • Coming up in June 2019- Unlocking Performance through Employee Engagement
  • The 18th International Studying Leadership Conference- December 2019

Publications 

  • Studying Leadership -Traditional and Critical Approaches (Second edition)
  • Origins of Organizing
  • Field Guide to Leadership Development
  • How Leaders Learn to Boost Creativity in Teams

Keep up to date with BLCC activities and news by following us on twitter @UWEleadership and reading the BLCC blog.

View the BLCC Annual Review 2018-19 online here.

Future Impact Webinar Series: Social Media and Body Image: Finding the positives

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The Bristol Business Engagement Centre (BBEC) in conjunction with Bristol Business School is proud to launch our Future Impact Webinar Series. This webinar series will feature exciting new developments in technology, science and management practice and highlight their impact on the future of business and society. Thought provoking yet practical, you will develop a better appreciation of what these advances will mean for you, your business and community.

Our inaugural webinar, presented by Dr. Noordin Shehabuddeen, with panellists from the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) will focus on social media and body image. The Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) is the world’s largest research group focusing on the role of appearance and body image in people’s lives. Dr. Amy Slater, Deputy Dicrector, CAR and Professor Diana Harcourt, Director, CAR will share their expertise, cutting edge research and knowledge.

Register here.  

Synopsis:

Social media has become an integral part of life for most young people, with over 90% using at least one social networking site, and almost half spending over 2 hours per day on social media (Tsitsika et al., 2014). Despite having many potential benefits, research has identified that greater social media use is associated with poorer body image, which is concerning given body dissatisfaction is linked to a wide range of negative psychological and health outcomes. This webinar will focus on what we know so far about the role of social media and body image, with a particular focus on looking for the potential positive role that social media could play in how we think about ourselves and our appearance.

Dr Amy Slater

Amy Slater is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England.  Her research interests lie in the area of body image, specifically body image in adolescents and children.  Her research has a particular focus on the role of social media and social networking services in the body image and wellbeing of young people.  Amy completed a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Flinders University in South Australia, and in addition to her research, is also experienced with working with children and adolescents in community and hospital settings.

Professor Diana Harcourt

Diana Harcourt is Director of the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) at UWE, Bristol, the world’s largest group of psychologists researching issues around body image and appearance.  Her research interests focus on the psychosocial aspects of altered or unusual appearance, particularly those associated with cancer or burn injuries.  She completed her PhD at UWE, Bristol, exploring women’s experiences of breast reconstruction after mastectomy. Her work includes developing and evaluating interventions to support people who are negatively affected by visible difference and those facing decisions about treatment that will alter their appearance

Dr Noordin Shehabuddeen

Noordin is Director of UWE’s Bristol Business Engagement Centre (BBEC) and Associate Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His remit is to lead a range of ambitious programmes aimed at further strengthening UWE’s role as a provider of cutting edge business-relevant education and solutions, and as a thought and practice leader in innovation. He was Director of Business Engagement as well as Director of Business Incubator at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, and prior to that, Director of the University of Liverpool’s Innovation Academy. He was also a Visiting Professor with the Government of Malaysia.

Noordin has presented numerous global webinars as a keynote speaker, and over 25 K people have taken his MOOC on innovation.  He is the author of a practitioner handbook ‘Innovation in real life: a hands-on guide to genuine innovation’. He is Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

 

International Women’s Day 2018 at the Bristol Business School

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On Thursday 8 March, Bristol Business School hosted several events and workshops to celebrate International Women’s Day.

The day was collaboratively organised by the Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education (ACE); the Bristol Business School and the Bristol Law School.

Guests were welcomed by Hazel Edwards Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) who set the scene for International Women’s Day and shared her own personal experiences with attendees.

The first session was run by Professor Carol Jarvis, with several students from Team Entrepreneurship, and focused on inspirational women.

Guests were asked to work in groups and share their inspirational women and then describe them using just one word.

Next there was a panel discussion entitled ‘Barriers to and opportunities for enabling more successful women in business’. The lively discussion was chaired by Professor Jane Roscoe, Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean, ACE and panellists included:

  • Kalpna Woolf – Award winning ex BBC Head. Author -Spice Yourself Slim
  • Sado Jirde – Director of Black South West Network (BSWN)
  • Vashti Seth – Success Redefined Coach
  • Professor Sue Durbin – Professor in Human Resource Management

Over lunch, stalls were set up in the Business School atrium which were run by female entrepreneurs. Guests were served food from Bini Fine Foods and were serenaded by our International Women’s Day choir.

There was also a raffle which raised over £200 for Bristol charity one25, who reach out to women trapped in, or vulnerable to, street sex work, supporting them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction.

In the afternoon there was a screening of “Barefoot in Business”, a film created by BAFTA award winning film maker Carol Cooke about female entrepreneurs in Uganda.

Also running throughout the afternoon were several workshops and drop in sessions including speed mentoring; an Athena SWAN workshop and a CV surgery.

The whole day was compered wonderfully by Lynn Barlow Assistant Vice Chancellor, ACE.

Thank you to all who were involved and helped make International Women’s Day at the Bristol Business School such a success.

International Women’s Day at UWE Bristol

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Come help us celebrate the entrepreneurial, political, social and cultural achievements of women, and their acts of courage and determination in the pursuit of gender parity in their workplaces, communities and countries.

To mark the day, we have planned a series of events and workshops at UWE which are all free to attend and open to all.

Alongside the events there will be stalls set up through the Atrium showcasing the amazing work that women in our region produce.

There will be a charity raffle with prizes including a Spa day from The Gainsborough Bath Spa, two tickets to the Affordable Art Fair in London, a coaching session from Sequoia Bridge as well as many more. All proceeds from the raffle will go to Bristol charity one25 who reach out to women trapped in, or vulnerable to, street sex work, supporting them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction. Further information can be found here!

There will be a free lunch provided by Bini Fine Foods for all attendees.

In order to register for this event, please email: fbl.execsupport@uwe.ac.uk 

Agenda

Arrival & Refreshments

10.00 – 10.15

Welcome

6X269

10.15 – 10.45

Female entrepreneurs: Inspirational case studies 6X269
Refreshments

11.00 – 12.00

Panel discussion: ‘Barriers to and opportunities for enabling more successful women in business’

·         Professor Jane Roscoe (Chair) – Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean, ACE

·         Kalpna Woolf – Award winning ex BBC Head. Author -Spice Yourself Slim

·         Sado Jirde – Director of Black South West Network (BSWN)

·         Vashti Seth – Success Redefined Coach

·         Professor Sue Durbin – Professor in Human Resource Management

6X269
Lunch

International Women’s Day Choir

Stalls ran by female entrepreneurs

Raffle announcement

Drop in sessions

Available between 12.00-14.00

Screening of Barefoot in Business

This is a film created by BAFTA award winning film maker Carol Cooke about female entrepreneurs in Uganda.

7X201

13.15- 14:15

CV Surgery

Careers Space X Block

13.15-14.15

Speed Mentoring

Speed mentoring (with a focus on enterprise)

TE Space

Workshops

14.20-15.00

Athena SWAN Workshop

The Role of Athena SWAN in engaging gender equality in UK university settings: Accreditation or lever of change?’

2X116

14.20-15.15 Creating and Telling your Leadership Story

3X105

15.20-15.50 Difficult Conversations

‘Based on one of UWEs Learning and Development Centre courses, this will workshop will leave you with some tips on how to better handle difficult conversations.’

 

2X116

 

 

UWE Teampreneurs take part in Team 4 Learning event in Finland

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At the end of January, 25 of our Teampreneurs (Team Entrepreneur Students) and 2 team coaches visited Jyväskylä, Finland to take part in a Team 4 Learning event. Teamprenuers from all Levels took part in the visit.

Team 4 Learning is a networking event for all the Teampreneurs and coaches from all over the world.

This year the event was in Jyväskylä, Finland, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Team Academy Finland.

Additionally Tiimiakatemia a coaching method used to teach Teampreneurs, was celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Launched in Finland 25 years ago, Tiimiakatemia has become a global network of more than 5000 Teampreneurs and 1300 team coaches in more than 20 countries.

The 25th anniversary provided a great opportunity for the Teampreneur community to come together to share ideas.

Our Teampreneurs had the opportunity to meet Tiimiakatemia founder, Johannes Partanen. They learnt about the history of the most influential Team Academies across the world including Tiimiakatemia, Proakatemia and Mondragon Team Academy (MTA).

They also heard from Peter Senge from MIT, who discussed the future of education.

The seminar was attended by over 200 Teampreneurs from across the globe.

Our students also participated in several workshops during their stay. This gave them the opportunity to work with other Teampreneurs and share ideas.

The whole experience was valuable for our Teampreneurs as it gave them the opportunity to share their ideas with other Teamprenuers from across the globe.

Our UWE Teampreneurs will share what they learnt with their team companies in the monthly “Where are you at?”event. There will also be a creative conversation around the event organised for the Teampreneur community at UWE.

Our UWE Teampreneurs hope to create a cross-level “international team” that promotes networking among the different Team Academies.

The Teampreneurs will be attending the MTA anniversary in Bilbao, Spain in May.

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