House of Lords reception recognises three business schools for outstanding programmes and student entrepreneurship, with two further schools Highly Commended.
Winners of the inaugural Small Business Charter (SBC) Excellence Awards were announced yesterday at the SBC’s Summer Reception held at the House of Lords. Initiatives run by the London College of Fashion's Fashion Business School, Aston Business School, and Dublin City University Business School took home the coveted awards, with The London College of Fashion and Strathclyde Business School being Highly Commended.
The Small Business Charter Excellence Awards are the opportunity for business schools that hold the SBC accreditation to showcase specialist activity that delivers sustainable impact and legacy.
London College of Fashion Business School won 'Outstanding Support for Small Business'
The London College of Fashion's Fashion Business School won the ‘Outstanding Support for Small Business’ category with its ground-breaking Fashion District initiative. The initiative demonstrates how technology, business and education can be brought together to nurture talent, create a network of affordable workspaces, support business and job growth, and develop innovative new products to drive economic and social transformation in East London.
Aston Business School took home the award for 'Outstanding Stakeholder Engagement'
The ‘Outstanding Stakeholder Engagement’ category was won by Aston Business School who demonstrated exceptional stakeholder engagement to promoting business growth towards increasing the contribution by Ethnic Minority Businesses to the UK economy from £25 billion to £100 billion. This is central to Aston's Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship's mission of ‘making diversity and enterprise everyone’s businesses. Aston's Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) provides leading growth programmes and other practical business support for entrepreneurs, SMEs, business leaders, and students across the community.
Dublin City University Business School won for 'Outstanding Support for Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship'
Dublin City University Business School took the trophy in the ‘Outstanding Support for Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship’ category for their exemplary support for student enterprise and entrepreneurship through the Learning Innovation for Enterprise (LIFE) module. In it, students learn about business in all its forms through challenge-based learning, involving hackathons, actor-led role plays, applied projects, reflective writing, and site visits.
Strathclyde Business School was Highly Commended for its Scaling Up Impact, Engagement and Influence programme, and the London College of Fashion’s Business School was also Highly Commended for its Fashion District: Covid recovery of SMEs initiative. The initiative supported the Covid recovery of Fashion SMEs by addressing two specific challenges that the pandemic presented for fashion SMEs, investment and innovation.
The SBC Summer Reception at the House of Lords was attended by leading figures from across academia, business and government and hosted by Lord Bilimoria, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham. Commenting on the awards he said: "It was an honour to host the Awards here at the House of Lords. These awards go a long way to giving rightful recognition to the best of the best of our business schools and the essential role they play in supporting and encouraging our amazing small business community.”
"I'd like to offer all three winners, and the two Highly Commended schools, my sincerest congratulations. I know that their outstanding work has a significant impact on smaller businesses and local economies, and it’s great to reward the amazing student enterprise and entrepreneurship. Our small – medium sized business community is the backbone to our economy and it's great to see them supported so brilliantly by these excellent initiatives from the students of our world-renowned business schools."
Michael Hayman, Chair of judges, Chair of the Small Business Charter added; "My fellow judges and I were blown away by the quality of entrants for these inaugural awards. We’ve seen incredibly creative ideas from the students being realised in initiatives that really show the transformational impact of business schools and the network of the Small Business Charter schools in every part of the UK. My warmest congratulations go to all five of the recognised schools. I will be following closely the future success of their programmes."
The panel of judges comprised business school leaders, SME business leaders, and other SME experts.
The SBC Excellence Awards are open to any school holding the SBC accreditation both at the time of application and at the date the awards are presented in June 2023.
For more information on the SBC Excellence Awards, please click here, or email Nick Parker at [email protected].