Manchester Metropolitan University

The second module of our internship was Manchester. We highly appreciate the opportunity given to us by Manchester Metropolitan University, as it was the biggest and very important part of our work.

The apogee of our program was Manchester Metropolitan University.

The visit was held by Claire Shofield, Deputy Director with Special Responsibility for Learning and Curriculum, the organization was on the high level, very professional, we were welcomed as old friends. The atmosphere in the MMU is so inspiring! We had a feeling that creativity was in the air. We have spent almost 5 days in this magnificent ambiance.

Let us innumerate activities we've participated on our first day: Introduction into Centre for enterprise; Knowledge Action Network (KAN); 10000 small businesses by Goldman Sachs.

This meetings were helpful from practical view, as we learnt that we should involve people with both university and non-university background, hold projects in groups in order to train negotiation, teamwork & communication skills of team. Also we noticed another important key finding that the main principle is peer to peer learning and it's a must to work in a team, as soft skills are highly important in doing business.

Jonathan Lawson held a workshop for us about how to attract and retain our target audience. And we pointed out that it’s extremely important to male an intelligence research in finding consumers, niche gaps, new opportunities and market facilities.

We appreciated personal attitude of Claire Shofield, Ann Mulhaney, Claire Giddens and Jonathan Lawson. We appreciate this people being passionate about their work, supporting and helpful to our team. This meetings gave us a perfect vision of team we would like to see in our Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Innospace

We had an opportunity to visit MMU business incubator - Innospace. A lot of workshops and special events are held there, this platform provides access to networks and funding. It was organized in a hotdesk system, so that the participants have access to all the available equipment. In Innospace you can take Innovation creativity and Entrepreneurship courses.

The plan of group activities and sessions is made for a whole year, when students come they don’t know what they'll do. In the end of year they produce business plan to business experts, - then get a feedback with key issues they need to focus on. Also we pointed out that the right manager is very important! Innospace underlines high role of good manager, to organize events together. The main reason of this centre being productive is written in this words: "We are not unique but we are good at what we are doing".

As a result of this meeting we found keys to success for our future centre:

• professionalism of establishing relationships,

• ability to learn from each other,

• being open to share your experience,

• benefit from mixture of the business,

• great location in the centre

• invite speakers and successful graduates

• be open-minded individuals

We would like to thank Avin Wong, Aden Levin and David Woollard for collaboration and support.

ATG Access

As an example of realization the projects of Manchester Metropolitan University and Innospace, we visited ATG Access company. ATG Access is Europe's largest manufacturer of security bollards and vehicle barrier systems, currently exporting to over 40 countries. Innovative products and cutting edge engineering is ATG Access's passion and the company has become a market leader in a variety of different technologies. This is a result of an extensive research and development programme which the company takes great pride in. They have leading manufacturing equipment such as our own panel shop allowing bespoke control systems to suit customer needs. ATG Access has become a global brand offering a wide variety of access control products and solutions.

Start-up idea consists of different changes in marketing strategy ATG Access and represent KTP project. Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is one of the world’s leading knowledge transfer mechanisms that provides academics with unique opportunity to apply their knowledge and research to real world business projects. A (KTP) is a three-way project between an academic, a business and a recently qualified person (known as the Associate). Part-funded by 13 Government organizations, and led by the Technology Strategy Board, KTP projects apply the world-leading knowledge and expertise of academics to business critical projects.

Through KTP, academics can:

• Develop business relevant teaching and research material
• Apply knowledge and expertise to important business problems
• Identify new research themes and undergraduate/postgraduate projects

So, Lucy,who met us in ATG, was earlier alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University. Her final marketing project was for ATG Access included changes of strategy, web-site, and creation new course of development. She organized exhibition plan and improve market instruments for company. So, as a KTP project, and with help of Innospace – market changes project for ATG was implemented in the company. Now, Lucy works in ATG as Marketing Executive.

This visit was very interesting and helpful. We have now a clear view on how University and governmental structures can be connected with business, involving students and giving them opportunities for self-fulfillment. Student’s projects have chance to be assessed and implemented in business. Atmosphere in ATG Access was very friendly. We would like to thank Lucy and Claire Shofield for organizing this meeting.

We highly appreciate the opportunity provided by our university and the moderator of our internship. That was a great opportunity for us to see real centres and programs, which support entrepreneurs, creating new understanding of the role of business. We would like to thank everyone who took part in organization of this internship, because it was a unique chance to see how the system works inside. This will help us to start our own Centre for Entrepreneurship in Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 525