Wednesday 28 October 2015

InQUBEate, a QMUL student enterprise programme that provides mentoring and training for students with entrepreneurial ideas, has been shortlisted for the Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards 2015.

Chosen from over 500 applications worldwide, InQUBEate is nominated for the employability category of the awards which celebrate innovative experiments in higher education. The overall winner will receive a $50,000 cash prize at the ceremony which will take place on December 8 at the Reimagine Education Conference in Philadelphia.

InQUBEate was developed by three partners; Rachel Brown, Enterprise Manager, Careers & Enterprise; Thomas Scovell, an advertising planner at TBWA; and Clement Bigot, a final year QMUL Economics student.

Rachel Brown said: “We’re delighted to be shortlisted for the awards. We launched InQUBEate last year as an experiment to see if we could set up a structured support system for our student entrepreneurs without any additional funding or resource, and the results have been fantastic. We’re very grateful to our mentors who give up their time every week to share their expertise and skills with our students; we couldn’t have launched it without them.”

The programme runs over the course of eight weeks, during which students meet up weekly and receive guidance from a team of mentors from a range of different industries. They also take part in a number of workshops including advertising, legal basics, and lean product development.

It gives students the opportunity to develop enterprise skills in demand from employers, such as being able to generate, test and validate new ideas; project plan; spot gaps in the market; deliver on targets; risk manage; and work effectively in teams. Following the eight week course all participants should leave with a refined and validated idea, ready to pitch for investment if they wish to pursue it further.

Since the launch of InQUBEate in November 2014 the programme has supported 32 students representing each of QMUL’s academic schools to launch or develop business ideas, providing them with a total of more than 300 hours of mentoring. It has also engaged 10 mentors from a range of industries including finance, advertising and marketing.

The 2015/16 programme has been enhanced by offering free workspace to all students on the cohort through a partnership with Central Working, along with the opportunity to pitch for a new Queen Mary ‘Build It’ award which offers students £10,000 to develop a product.