Lights, camera, learning
13 May 2010
LJMU’s Business Development Centre’s Student Enterprise team has created a series of short films to promote and support entrepreneurship across all faculties of the University.
Part-funded by LJMU’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), the films feature owners of nine graduate businesses from within the thriving LJMU Start-Up Network, who provide valuable insights into their experience of starting out in business including what worked, what didn’t work, what they have learned and what they would do differently next time.
The Student Enterprise team is increasingly developing links with local business owners who can then share their experience of entrepreneurship, illustrating - with real life examples - the challenges, difficulties and rewards of following this route.
To ensure that as many students as possible benefit from engaging with local business people the Student Enterprise team hit upon the idea of making films which would capture this learning and allow it to be used in a variety of ways to suit the requirements of staff and students.
The BDC’s Dominique Aspey, Enterprise Network Manager and Track Dinning from the Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure managed the film project, working with local business ‘It’s About Video Ltd’ to produce the films.
Dominique said: "Learning from the experiences of business people who have gone through the start-up process is by far the best way for future entrepreneurs to be ready for self-employment. It is not always possible however for local business owners to give a talk and sometimes this format does not fit in with the delivery of the curriculum.
"This series of films provides a flexible alternative. The films can be shown in their entirety, as if the speakers were present in the classroom, or presented as short clips as part of exercises and group discussions to get students involved in analysing different business models and approaches.
"These films make a big impression on students; they are thought-provoking, they promote discussion and because students can relate to the business owners featured they are proving to be powerful learning tools."
The films are available to every School within LJMU and the Student Enterprise team will work with academics to develop accompanying, tailor-made resource packs relevant to subject areas.
Dominique added: "Creating this series of films is an exciting development in the way we teach entrepreneurship and because the businesses featured are so varied they provide a vehicle to show that starting a business in a viable option for graduates from all kinds of subject areas. It has also been an innovative way in which to engage with members of our Start-Up Network who gave their time to take part in the project and who will use the films to promote their own businesses. We hope that they serve to encourage entrepreneurship across all faculties of the University."
For more information, contact Dominique Aspey on: 0151 231 8062 or email: d.aspey@ljmu.ac.uk
The BDC’s Student Enterprise team would like to thank the local businesses featured in the films for their time and contribution: Silverberg Opticians, Trendy Vend, Empire Business Solutions, Expert Language Solutions, Re:thinkthings, Emeritus Consultants, Another Media, Glow New Media and Dave McTague.
