We’ve taken a look back at our Student Entrepreneurs Question Time (SEQT) events at the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat party conferences to look at the questions it raised and the solutions put forward.seqt img 1 copy

This autumn NACUE partnered with Santander to host three panel debates that gave students the opportunity to grill politicians and enterprise experts on the issues that mattered to them. Student Entrepreneurs Question Time (SEQT) ran alongside the three main political party conferences in Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. Connecting students with politicians and enterprise experts, the panel debates covered entrepreneurship, enterprise education and the challenges facing young people entering the world of work today.  

The consensus among the politicians and enterprise experts was that technology is constantly creating greater opportunities for young entrepreneurs - “there has never been a better time to start a business” said Chris Sharkey, Santander's Head of Education. However, they warned the student audience that to succeed they must be prepared to fail. They also agreed that there needs to be a shift in the way that the nation views failure and that this should be taught at school.

According to our post event surveys, the student audience were of a similar opinion. Besides the usual demand for financial support, advice and mentoring, some of the survey respondents said they wanted the public’s perception of entrepreneurship to change. This included improving the negative perception of failure, raising awareness of entrepreneurial development and presenting entrepreneurship as less of an elitist pursuit.

The panelists also discussed the need for more practical support such as mentoring schemes, introducing finance and contract law as part of the GCSE curriculum and using vacant office spaces for startup businesses. The findings of the student survey showed that access to finance (27%) is an important area in which young entrepreneurs need support. However, the results suggest that advice and mentoring (38%) is the most important form of support for young entrepreneurs. This is closely linked to the demands of 22% of survey respondents, who want more information about how to set up a business. On top of this practical and financial support, infrastructure in the form of access to accelerator/incubator centres was also listed.

It was clear from students at all three conferences that they were aware of some of the opportunities available to them but they felt that more could be done by government and universities. We asked students about how they felt the events had changed their feelings about entrepreneurship. We found that 75% of survey respondents felt their confidence in enterprise success was higher or much higher since attending and 74% believed SEQT increased their desire to work in enterprise.

These results suggest that those involved in entrepreneurship are now more confident that they can succeed since attending the events. On the other hand, respondents had little confidence in government support for entrepreneurial business, with 26% stating that their confidence is low or very low. In fact 81% of survey respondents do not feel represented by decision makers at all. In spite of this, the events were still successful in increasing the students’ understanding of how political decision makers can help entrepreneurial businesses (41%). Better still, 80% of survey respondents stated that their understanding of how student enterprise societies can help entrepreneurial ambitions was higher or much higher after the SEQT.

Peter Bailey, 23, is a young entrepreneur (Founder of Fail Forward and the South Africa Challenge) and attendee at our Conservative SEQT. He wanted to hear about the support for startups, how it's being delivered and the government’s view towards failure.

Take a look at his summary of the event:

Julieta Ose, 19, young entrepreneur (Founder of OxyOse) and attendee at our Conservative SEQT in Birmingham, wanted to find out what entrepreneurs are going to do to encourage entrepreneurship.

Check out her round-up:

Panellists were also on board! Andrew Clarke, Deputy Business Editor of the Times was the chair at our Conservative SEQT. He highlighted the amount of billion pound businesses being created on university campuses, and called for more to be done to help the next generation of global leaders.

Give it a watch:

Sherry Coutu, established entrepreneur and known angel investor was on the panel at our Conservative SEQT. She called for more students to think beyond traditional careers.

Take a look the other advice she gave:

Our CEO, Johnny Luk, was a panellist at all three party conferences. He explains how NACUE is all about helping to create an entrepreneurial generation. He summarises the importance and purpose of running our Student Entrepreneurs Question Time.

Take a look:

If you're interested in starting your own business or working for a startup, check out our Startup Career Launchpad!

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  1. Our Impact
  2. Our Mission
  3. 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

Students

19,926

Event attendees

20,505

Followers

42,000

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16,512

Businesses

43,439

Jobs

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.



 

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.

The difference we make

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