Code At Uni – From Enterprise Society to Entrepreneurs

Running a company while juggling your degree is tough – but it’s actually the best time to start your first company. Three years ago while at LSE, we started Code At Uni (www.codeatuni.com) to change the way university students learn programming. We started with no money, very little technical knowledge and certainly no connections to the world of tech education. In three years we’ve taught 2,000 students at universities across the UK.

The story began in our second year at LSE when we were running the Entrepreneurs Society and from speaking with our members we learned that many students wanted to get into the tech world but didn’t know any programming and felt it was a huge obstacle.

We knew technology was changing the world beyond recognition and that learning to code, even a little bit, was going to supercharge your career and grow your ability to build great companies. We felt therefore that everyone should have the opportunity to learn but it didn’t seem like there were enough options for LSE students; online courses were difficult to stick with and physical courses were too theoretical and/or extremely expensive!

So one day we decided to create an event aimed at helping people learn how to code. We initially booked a classroom but within hours hundreds of people had clicked attending and we had to rearrange it to take place in the largest venue on campus! The event was a greater success than we could have imagined which taught us the value of moving fast and testing our ideas. University is a great time to test your ideas with a shoe-string budget and nothing to lose but your free time.

Here’s the first flyer we ever made:

Another bonus of testing many ideas is that working on an idea can often be a great way to acquire your most powerful resource: an excellent co-founder. Starting a business is hard, but it’s much easier if you have a partner. Searching for the right co-founder isn’t like searching for a tinder match – unfortunately you need to spend a long time working, not hanging out, with someone to understand if they are a good business partner. The best time in your life to do this is at university – no doubt. So it’s often best to start working on an idea, even if you’re not sure that idea will work out, just as an excuse to work alongside your co-founder. If you’re a good team then you will have solved one of the hardest problems in business: finding the right people. No matter how great your idea, your co-founder is always more important. Because we’d spent three years working together at university, we had a chance to refine our working relationship by the time we graduated.

Because of the success of the first event, we decided to launch a 10 week course for 10 LSE students. We found a teacher on Reddit who just happened to be an extremely senior developer. We cut our teeth on this first course, learning a huge amount about technology and education over the 10 weeks.

The freedom to make mistakes has actually been one of the best things about starting a business at university; any successful person will tell you that life is about learning from your mistakes. When you’re inexperienced and running a business you’ll make tons of mistakes and we’ve made our fair share. But when you’re running a part time business at university, you have even more time to reflect on those mistakes and make sure you learn from them. Some of our best reflection was done whilst procrastinating during exam periods when we’d had to tone down the business. By the time we graduated we felt confident we wouldn’t be repeating the mistakes of the past and we were ready to deliver world class programming education around the country.

We also incorporate this approach into our courses; encouraging students to start coding from the beginning, making mistakes and learning from them. So far it’s been really successful, many of the students who took our early courses have gone on to become professional developers, build their own mobile apps or launch their own tech businesses.

Elliot and Jack will be running a coding workshop for beginners at the Student Enterprise Conference on March 12.

Follow their story and learn to code on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodeatUni1/

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Our Impact
Our Mission
Our model

We've achieved a great deal in a short number of years, though there's much more too do in supporting our mission of 'Powering the Enterprise Generation'.

32,000

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19,926

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20,505

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Powering the Enterprising Generation

Our mission is to support the development of education and student engagement throughout college and universities by championing student enterprise societies and peer-to-peer learning. NACUE started from an extraordinary movement in student entrepreneurship, providing young individuals with a platform to be experimental, creative and inspiring in their approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship, encouraging a bottom-up approach to inspiring the next generation.

Today, we see over 200 enterprise societies, powered by peer-to-peer groups, who are championing the success of young people throughout their interactive programmes by forging collaborative relationships with their institutions to provide greater experience and development opportunities for their peers. Establishing regional links with locals SME’s who are keen to open their doors to emerging talented, proactive and enthusiastic graduates perpetuates this.

Our work is dedicated to supporting the development and encouragement of entrepreneurship amongst young individuals and forms the sole purpose of NACUE. To learn more about NACUE and the services we produce, click here.

As a not-for-profit, we raise charitable donations that allow us to widen the opportunities available to young people in relation to enterprise and entrepreneurship, strengthening student engagement, the quality of education and connecting and representing student enterprise societies and student entrepreneurs worldwide.

NACUE is a charitable organisation that supports 32,000 students and young people every year. As funding becomes harder to obtain, we rely on the generous support of donors to ensure our programs can continue to change the lives and aspirations of the younger generation.

A donation of any size goes a long way to furthering our work and really is greatly appreciated. Every gift matters in aiding our mission of ‘Powering the Enterprising Generation' but we mainly rely upon the generosity of our members and alumni to do this. By making a single or regular donation you can make a big difference. To learn more about how you can donate, please follow the links below.

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Large national network

NACUE are delighted to have supported a huge number of student-led societies over the years. You can see the number of established student-led societies on an interactive map below

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Who we work with

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are at the very core of NACUE, everything we do is to better the startup and self employment ecosystem. We believe that entrepreneurs will shape the future, and we bolster this through our events, our network and our advocacy.

Students

NACUE works with students in Colleges and Universities right across the UK, helping support them in their entrepreneurial goals and connect them with like minded peers.

Educators

NACUE works collaboratively with educators and academics in supporting the development of entrepreneurial mindsets in young people.

Our events

Our events offer the young people we work with the opportunity to connect with our wider network, the experts and seasoned entrepreneurs in our community and the chance to be inspired to take the leap of faith into entrepreneurship. These events are attended by students and graduates from universities and colleges up and down the UK, as well as students from across Europe. Student Societies take centre stage at our events, alongside innovators, game changers and trail blazers of the UK startup ecosystem.

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The Student Enterprise Conference 2021

The difference we make

Alex Deung

Society President, Entrepreneurs Durham

It has been a great pleasure working closely with NACUE. NACUE has supported me both on big and small issues within my role. Without NACUE’s support, Entrepreneurs Durham wouldn’t be where it is today.

Wendy Funnell

Head, Centre for Entrepreneurship

The pleasure of seeing young people start something from nothing and watching them as they’re growing is wonderful. If we hadn’t had NACUE, we couldn’t do a lot of what we’re doing now. I can absolutely, categorically say that.

FE Student

FE Student, Enterprise Society

I am enjoying it (the enterprise society) a lot, and it’s great to be achieving something real. So often in college we plan to the point of doing the activity but then never actually do it.