Find out how Lancaster University unlocks students entrepreneurial talent

Lancaster University students are proving their entrepreneurial skills and trying out their business ideas through the student union enterprise project Create.  Set up in September 2005 Create assists and encourages students and recent alumni to set up their own businesses providing support in three main ways:

  • Workshops on the business fundamentals from business planning to sales – these are run by business professionals and entrepreneurs.
  • Students receive help from the Create Team to develop their idea and write a business plan.
  • The Create Panel (the Friendly Dragons Den) – a panel of business owners and university alumni whom the students present their business plans to in the hope of being awarded start up funds (maximum £1500).

“We have excellent relationships with the local business community and local entrepreneurs which is one of the real strengths of Create in my opinion” says Joseph Buglass, Create Manager.  “The students love the fact that they can meet with and talk to people who have done it and are still doing it.”

Since its inception in 2005 Create has assisted 25 student start ups with many more in development.  These range from a handmade greeting card business which sold its products in the North West to an award winning soup business to an IT firm called Insiris which provides mobile tracking solutions (see case study).  “If the student has a viable idea then Create will help them regardless of degree discipline. We’ve had fine art students who have set up very profitable businesses and we’ve had a physics Phd student set up a social enterprise” says Buglass.

Case Study

Matthew Summers and Duncan McCaffery have founded Insiris Ltd which offers advanced technology such as GPS mobile tracking of personnel and their vehicles. The computing graduates from Lancaster University now have large investors interested and have a target of £100,000 turnover in the first year, with plans to recruit their own staff.

Matthew graduated in 2006 with a BSc in Computing while Duncan recently gained his PhD in Computing. After working in industry together, they spotted a gap in the market and decided to leave their jobs to set up their own company.

Matt said: “Lots of businesses want to track where their staff are remotely, for example to make sure that social workers on a call are safe. The system we’ve developed can be customised to a particular business. You can even track their petrol consumption and whether they’ve stopped the car and got out.”

Duncan McCaffrey and Matthew Summers showing off the tracking devices that their system uses.

To find out more about Create contact:  Joseph Buglass-  Tel No 01524 594648 or visit www.create.lancs.ac.uk