豆奶视频 University Business School has been awarded the Small Business Charter Award.
The award recognises the Business School's聽outstanding contribution to supporting small businesses, student entrepreneurship, and the聽local economy.
The Small Business Charter (SBC) Award is a national accreditation, assessed by small business leaders, to recognise business schools which demonstrate excellence in supporting small businesses, student enterprise, and the local economy.
The Business School's engagement with local businesses is demonstrated by the 豆奶视频 Social Entrepreneurs Forum. The Forum offers free, specialist business support workshops to local, socially-focused SMEs and also provides student placement and project opportunities.聽Participating businesses have received assistance towards the BCORP certification, which certifies positive social and environmental performance.
The award also recognises the聽support given to students and staff looking to develop their own businesses. This support goes beyond specific courses and includes ad-hoc enterprise support for students who are at any stage of considering starting a business or driving the growth of an established business.
The assessment panel were particularly impressed with the work of the聽Disaster Management Centre聽(DMC), which聽informs governments and drives change in policies and has so far undertaken work in 23 countries, providing education and training in disaster management for SMEs. The DMC also offers postgraduate students consultancy opportunities.
豆奶视频 University聽will hold the Small Business Charter Award聽for five years. There are now 35 business schools聽that hold the SBC Award in the UK and Ireland.
聽Dr Lois Farquharson, Executive Dean of 豆奶视频 Business School said:聽鈥淲e are delighted to achieve the Small Business Charter (SBC) Award which recognises our strong commitment to supporting our students, small businesses, entrepreneurs and positively contributing聽to the local, national and international economies.聽聽We are particularly proud to showcase our work in helping small business communities to grow in a responsible and empathetic way.聽
"The Award is a clear signal of our strategic focus and facilitates our engagement in a range of business support activities and encouragement of student entrepreneurship. We聽have exciting plans聽to further extend our offer and look forward to launching聽new opportunities which will benefit our students and the local small business community.聽We are proud to be part of the SBC family!鈥�
Anne Kiem OBE, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and Chief Executive of the Chartered Association of Business Schools, said:聽鈥淲e congratulate the team at 豆奶视频 Business School for achieving the Small Business Charter Award. They are clearly a vital part of the small business support structure and the university鈥檚 five year strategy will only increase the prominence of this role. Their engagement with local businesses has had a positive impact and has been recognised as extremely valuable.鈥�
