EEUK Practitioners, whether you are coaching, advising, mentoring or inspiring starts or businesses, you always need to keep one eye on the wider eco-system, whether that is potential advantages provided by your local eco-system, such as the Small Business Britian’s 2024 Tour, focus on Small Business Saturday,  or the sector/national changes, such as those seen in areas such as the employment allowance (which allows smaller companies to reduce their National Insurance liability) which increased from £5,000 to £10,500.  This first Labour Budget – Autumn 2024 which has impacted on business and employers, with a rise in the minimum wage as well as ensuring support in accessing finances (through Start Up Loans or Growth Guarantee Scheme) and the continued governmental commitment to Invest in Women Taskforce.

The government stated its commitment to “Horizon” and promised £6.1bn to research, through  long-term certainty through 10-year budgets.
There was a boost for the creative industries, as the budget 2024 confirmed funding for Create Growth Programme; video games (UK Games Fund) and grassroots music and regional  Creative Industries Clusters programme, including pipeline support for 11-18 year olds – and news of the creation of a new social impact investment vehicle to “mobilise private investment to deliver positive social impacts” and although details aren’t yet clear, this may support the HE funding gaps that are currently being faced.

This Autumn budget came off the back of the consultation paper on the UK industrial strategy – Invest 2035 – which was welcomed for its potential to place HEIs within a national strategy of growth  and prompted wider discussion on the role of innovation, with Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee calling for “incentives and examples that we can set to inspire more entrepreneurial cultures in our universities”. This ultimately may result in wider changes, such as a currently-speculative calls for a 10 year international visas for STEM grad and government recognition for the role of research and innovation, from “labs to start up”. (so although @WonkHe’s hope that graduate outcomes would feature in the industrial strategy failed to materialise, the HE sector has responded with clear vision for the potential for further HE innovation in response documents such as  Russell Group stats/evidence

Outside of this, there are national calls for partnership, which in the  wider context of  the “civil society” which seeks to “reset” the relationship between government and social enterprises through the civil society covenant so may create impact, value creation and community knowledge exchange opportunities for our students.

And finally with our regular call to “show off” your work, your students and your institutional achievements, for the benefit of yourselves and your students, this month we invite you to shout out about your GEW events, as GEN call upon education to showcase your activities!

Sign up to shout out! And don’t forget to check out the release of new resources, highlighted at IEEC2024 Belfast, as Entrepreneurship for All https://entrepreneurship4all.eu/ launched its bitesize online materials!