Enterprise Champion scheme unveiled in north-west

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has announced five universities will receive funding for Enterprise Champions to boost their graduate entrepreneurial skills.

This exciting project will support fresh ideas at an early stage and encourage our graduates to take their entrepreneurial plans forward to profit-making businesses

Steven Broomhead

Chief Executive

NWDA

Sharing a £930,000 investment, the universities of Liverpool, Salford, Cumbria, Manchester Metropolitan and Liverpool John Moores will help students with enterprising ideas turn them into commercial ventures.

The Enterprise Champions programme, which is delivered by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), will support graduate start-up firms, as well as lobbying policymakers in north-west universities to introduce frameworks and environments which support entrepreneurs.

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the NWDA, commented: "This exciting project will support fresh ideas at an early stage and encourage our graduates to take their entrepreneurial plans forward to profit-making businesses.

The scheme will carry on from the work already done by the existing Enterprise Champion at Liverpool John Moores University, while the NWDA is also looking at ways to expand the programme to include other universities.

Founded in 2004, the NCGE aims to provide the UK's graduates will the opportunity to start their own business and works to shape national and regional policies which influence entrepreneurship in universities.