This term, Create have organised networking and training events specifically designed to help students with creating career opportunities for themselves.
There will be ‘Snapshot Events’ held from Week 11 to Week 14, in which entrepreneurs who have been helped by Create in the past will be speaking to students about their experience of working with the Create team. These events are a great opportunity for current students to learn from past students who have started their own business; for instance from Fay Hewitson, who has started her own cheerleading club, and Tom Jenkins, who set up his own web design company.
There are also going to be events ‘Enterprise in Heels’ events, which are specifically for female students and aim to improve the confidence and social networking skills of anyone interested to give it a go.
Lizzie Whatley, who is organising these student-specific events, was keen to stress that the events are ‘not just for people with a business idea; I understand that people get daunted by social situations and these events are designed to build a person’s confidence within these situations’.
The ‘Enterprise in Heels’ is a good example of an event designed to improve confidence and networking skills – the first of these events is a networking and training event, and will take place on Wednesday Week Six. The second of these events will be held in the Management School, and will include entrepreneurs from the fields of fashion, PR, events management and a member of the ITV staff. Also attending the second event is a person whose identity is yet to be disclosed, but whom Lizzie describes as “an award winning social entrepreneur.”
Create has worked hard this year to become accessible to all students, and the Snapshot and ‘Enterprise in Heels’ events have been organised with the intention of improving the networking skills, confidence and commercial awareness of all, rather than just those with a specific business idea in mind. Lizzie commented that “these events are even just useful for those who find talking to strangers difficult, or people who want to appear more confident at parties.”
The Create team are also very open to suggestions, so if anyone would like to see a specific area of business represented at any of the upcoming events, you are encouraged to drop into the Create offices (situated in Alexandra Square) or email Lizzie with your idea.
The first ‘Enterprise in Heels’ event will take place on Wednesday Week Six, Conference Centre Room 4 at 3pm.
