Britain’s Most Enterprising Place

In April’s edition of EnterpriseUpfront we featured the launch of Enterprising Britain’s search for the country’s most enterprising place. Now the search to find the place that will hold the 2010 title is in its final stages we’ve put the spotlight on the finalists to find out why they’re the country’s biggest contenders in enterprise and regeneration.

Enterprising Britain 2010 recognizes cities, villages, towns and neighbourhoods that have tackled the economic downturn head on and are successfully creating jobs, boosting local business and nurturing entrepreneurial talent as the UK emerges from the recession.
The finalists are as follows:

East Midlands, Think 3E, Wellingborough
Think 3e is a social enterprise providing innovative recycling solutions for organisations such as The Sun newspaper, Superdrug, Sony, Nissan COMAG, and Carlsberg
The Think 3e applicants were commended for creating jobs for those most disadvantaged in the labour market, including those with no qualifications, learning difficulties and convictions, whilst allowing businesses to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities and benefiting the local community at large.

East of England , Shop at My Local, Rochford
Shop at my Local works to encourage more local spend in the Rochford area not only to provide local businesses with an increased customer base but also to help the local economy by retaining local spend.
 
London, APE Media, Stratford
Ape Media is a ‘not for profit ‘ organisation based in East London offering professional training courses from Radio production and fashion shows to dance, music and drama events and campaigns .Their ethos is ‘Developing Talent, Revitalising the Industry’.

North East, Stockton Borough Council
Partners in the area support and encourage enterprise through fostering enterprise skills, championing enterprise in the community and supporting start-up businesses.  Stockton’s paid particular attention to encouraging young people in schools and from all kinds of backgrounds to consider self-employment as a viable career option for the future.

Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council
Belfast City Council`s award was for the work of our Economic Development Unit to improve employability, by putting in place a range of measures, through the Local Economic Development Plan, to develop talent, competitiveness and sustainability across Belfast with sector and community specific programmes.

North West, Willow Park Housing Trust Enterprise Project, Manchester
A community based enterprise support project being delivered in one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Demonstrating the effectiveness the partnerships working and what can really be achieved through hard work and vision.
The project has supported some 800 people in the past 5 years and has helped set up almost 120 new businesses employing over 150 people in the local area.

Scotland, Falkirk Council
Falkirk was recognised for its success with My Future’s in Falkirk, a 10-year initiative originally created to tackle job losses in the petrochemical industry. It initiated a series of projects impacting on the area’s economy and promoting Falkirk to the wider business community.

South East, Berkshire Education Business Partnership Organisation, Reading
Working with education and business, to help all young people acquire the skills and experience they will need for their own development and to enable them to play a full part in the life of the community.

South West, Business Initiative for Schools, Taunton
The Business Initiative for Schools supports the development of business awareness and sustained development of business ideas.
The focus and delivery is based around developing young people who have ideas and drive in becoming business owners - no matter how big or small.

Wales, Gwynedd Economic Partnership
The Gwynedd Economic Partnership (PEG) facilitates collaboration in order to secure a prosperous future for the people, communities and businesses of Gwynedd and keeps an eye on the European Structural Funds that are operational in Gwynedd, including the Convergence Programme. PEG also promotes economic development in general, and in the face of the current economic climate, this role is more important than ever.

West Midlands, Young People’s Enterprise Centre of Expertise (YPECOE), Coventry
YPECOE is a 2-year project which is promoting and developing young people’s entrepreneurship as an economic driver for the region. Its legacy is a unique web platform – www.thinkenterprise.org – which provides a range of practical business tools, advice, video role models, mentoring and networking for under-25s.

Yorkshire and Humber, Rotherham Ready
Rotherham Ready aim to inspire children about business as soon as they start school, and Rotherham Youth Enterprise provide all the support young people need to make their business dreams a reality.

Britian’s most enterprising place will be announced in November. For more information on Enterprising Britain’s search for the country’s most enterprising place please visit: http://www.enterpriseuk.org/get_involved/enterprising_britain