Wanted: student entrepreneurs

The Student Business Plan Competition – to be launched on Wednesday 19 February 2003 – is offering £3,500 in return for creative, innovative and commercially viable new business start-up ideas from students of the University of St Andrews.

Open to all undergraduate and postgraduates in the Faculties of Science and Arts, entries are welcomed in two categories – Service Business or (High) Technology Business. The competition will be divided into two levels – one for first to fourth year undergraduates and one for post-honours level students.

Each level will have three prizes – first prize of £2,000, second prize of £1,000 and third prize of £500. A special award with cash prize will also be donated by one of the main competition sponsors, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. Other prizes on offer range from off-licence vouchers for the first 15 entries received to valuable legal assistance from Thorntons WS, one of Scotland’s top law firms.

Students wishing to find out more about the business plan competition are invited to attend the competition launch event. This will take place in function room 1, New Hall, North Haugh, St Andrews at 1pm, Wednesday 19 February 2003. St Andrews graduate Brian Sayers, Director of The Cottage will outline ‘The Hands-On Approach to Entrepreneurship and Learning’. Students wishing to attend must register in advance and on-line: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/sie.

The launch event will be followed by a series of seminars and workshops within the University, including an introduction to business planning, a fascinating insight into developing an invention, together with talks on intellectual property and the financial implications of building a business. To register for these events, students should again register in advance on-line at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/sie.

The competition launch follows the appointment in Research and Enterprise Services of the University’s first Student Enterprise Officer, St Andrews alumnus Christopher Venditozzi. The post is part-funded by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) and Scottish Enterprise Fife (SEF). Since its launch, SIE (http://www.sie.ac.uk) has helped over two dozen companies emerge from Scottish universities and, through its network of professionals in each of Scotland’s 13 universities, provides a variety of high-quality professional services to start- up’s.

Christopher’s role involves raising awareness and educating students in enterprise and intellectual property management through courses and workshops; providing students with the chance to meet entrepreneurs; helping entrepreneurial students access business support agencies; and promoting SIE activities within the student community.

Christopher said, “It is my role to develop and stimulate a new culture within the student community, that encourages and motivates students with bright ideas to develop them within a supportive environment. Through nurturing such opportunities built on solid foundations, we hope that students can take their innovative ideas forward and fully exploit their business and market potential. With workshops and seminars delivered by some of Scotland’s top entrepreneurs, we will be helping students develop the personal transferable skills and transferable business skills necessary to succeed in the global economic environment. By actively engaging with learning at a holistic level, students can broaden their horizons and avoid the common pitfalls associated with marketing and financing a new business venture.

“The business plan competition is an ideal way of starting this process. I am urging any students with ideas which might fill a gap in the market and which have the potential to succeed to enter. It could be the start of turning their dream into a reality.”

ENDS

Issued by Beattie Media on behalf of the University of St Andrews For more information please contact: Claire Grainger on 01334 462530, 07730 415 015 or email cg24@st- andrews.ac.uk View University press releases on- line at http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk Ref: businessplan/standrews/chg/10feb200 3