Italy’s talented entrepreneurs selected for business incubation in the UK
What’s the Italian word for entrepreneur?
The SETsquared Partnership (www.setsquared.co.uk) has selected some of Italy’s brightest students for an intensive one-week entrepreneurship programme in the UK. Fifteen Italian students will learn from experienced UK entrepreneurs and innovators in an intensive week-long Programme provided by the SETsquared partnership of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey.
The participants were selected earlier this summer by SETsquared staffers Karen Brooks, Simon Bond and David Bream during a weekend bootcamp in Bard, Italy. The bootcamp helped the students develop their business ideas with seminars on “the perfect pitch” and making your business investor ready. The weekend culminated in a pitching session with the best teams being selected to attend the Bath Entrepreneurship Programme, which is run in conjunction with the University of Bath’s School of Management.
The Entrepreneurship Programme is an intensive, practical course, which helps students to develop a business plan in a week. It combines sessions from entrepreneurs and investors with taught lectures and small-group workshops.
“With this initiative, SETsquared is exporting its knowledge of entrepreneurship to other countries,” said Simon Bond, Director of the SETsquared Centre, Bath. “Like the UK, Italy has a great heritage in business and innovation, and we’re delighted to work with their next generation of entrepreneurs and equip them with the skills they’ll need to create great new European businesses.”
SETsquared’s services in Italy are funded by Fondazione CRT, a non-profit organization dedicated to the economical, social and cultural development of Piemonte and the Valle d’Aosta region. Support was also provided by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).
About the SETsquared Partnership
Twitter: @SETsquared
The SETsquared Partnership (http://www.setsquared.co.uk) is the enterprise collaboration of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Together, the universities employ 7,400 academic staff; earn nearly 10% of the UK’s higher education research budget; and produce 11% of all UK university patents.
The partnership has a 10-year track record of supporting companies through its innovation centres, which provide access to industry specialists, investors and experienced entrepreneurs. SETsquared currently supports over 250 early stage high-tech, high growth potential businesses, and 88% of its incubated companies are still in business three years on. In the past five years, nearly £0.75bn in investment funding has been raised by spin outs and incubated companies.
SETsquared supports its student population of over 90,000 graduate and undergraduates to gain hands on business skills and entrepreneurial training through experiential inter-university activities. The Partnership also provides opportunities for industry to access academic ideas with commercial potential and develop collaborative R&D relationships. The Partnership seeks to promote the impact, economically and socially, of its institutions’ research and enterprise activities.
