As previewed earlier in the week, the Social Enterprise Hub Awards 2023 took place at the University of Reading on Wednesday evening. It was the culmination of a year of planning and a year-long project by 24 students, as well as being an important collaboration between The Abbey, Reading School and Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Seven teams of students have worked for more than eight months to develop social enterprise ideas, with the aim of launching projects that would help their local communities. Wednesday’s event saw each team pitch for funding from a Dragon’s Den-style panel of experts. Each pitch was followed by a grilling from the judges, which saw students thinking on their feet and demonstrating in-depth knowledge of their financial plans and business development ideas. 

After light refreshments and an opportunity for networking, certificates were presented and the judges announced which of the businesses were to receive funding. Of the seven ideas, four were considered ready to go now, and a total of £4,500 was pledged to support students in making their ideas reality. All the teams received certificates of participation, and of academic achievement from Henley Business School, and they will continue to receive mentoring to support the development of their social enterprises. 

The project has allowed students to gain significant experience in terms of key employability skills, including presenting, communicating, financial management, negotiation and project planning.

Huge congratulations to all who took part and we look forward to reporting on the progress of these exciting projects. In addition, the programme has been given the green light to return next year and we are looking forward to helping the next cohort of social entrepreneurs to fulfil their dreams.

Our sincere thanks go to Amal Ahmadi & Jurek Sikorski from Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship, Dal Singh from Reading School, and Charles Lovibond, Programme Lead at The Abbey.

Also thanks to UoR Entrepreneurship Society members who acted as mentors to the students:

Giles
Ellen
Aayam
Zenab
Afrah
Yash
Kajal

And finally, thanks must also go to Mark Mason & Erica Purvis from Design Nature CIC, who shared their experiences of launching and running a social enterprise and who were keen advocates of the approach that the students were adopting.