The ESP, based at the Department of Research and Innovation (DRI), promotes entrepreneurship and helps to engage students in entrepreneurial activities and supports student ventures. Student support routes include one-to-one meetings with the Enterprise Support Officer, enterprise internships, access to business advisors and mentors, applying for the Graduate Start-Up Support Programme (GSS) offered by the Welsh Government, and other start-up services for example, coaching in business plan writing. Students can also take advantage of seminars and extra-curricular activities and events that the University offers. IfEL, supported by Swansea Employability Academy (SEA), works to deliver these opportunities for all students.

Swansea University offers students support and this has led to success in the ESP performance target areas agreed by HEFCW. All performance targets set for year 3 of this project have been met and in 5 out of 6 areas the targets have been beaten. Swansea University has effectively developed relationships with FE and HE colleges, successfully beating its performance target for the number of collaborative events with FE Institutions (8 events to a target of 3). Also the target for the number of students or graduates attending Entrepreneurial Effectiveness sessions has been exceeded (344 to a target of 202).

David Bolton, Enterprise Support Officer at Swansea University, said: “The Enterprise Support Programme has allowed us to help students build their confidence levels and start ventures of their own. We have developed an integrated approach encompassing embedded teaching, incubation facilities and extra-curricular engagement. Swansea University values entrepreneurship highly and overachieving in our performance targets is an indication of this.”

For more information contact Dave Bolton on 01792 606353 or  d.r.bolton@swansea.ac.uk 

Swansea University is a partner in the Wales-wide Enterprise Support Programme. The programme is designed to develop the entrepreneurial effectiveness of students in both the Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) sectors in Wales and is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).