About SIE
SIE wants to help students in Scotland discover their entrepreneurial talent and start up their own ventures. Our mission is to help create new student businesses and social enterprises.
We aim to increase the number of students who consider entrepreneurship a real option during and after their studies through a number of activities and events. The national New Ideas Competition is for those who might have an idea but haven’t taken steps toward making it a reality. The summer programme Bootcamp is another entry-point for students who know they want to start their own venture but haven’t taken the first steps, or don’t even yet have a new idea.
For students who have already established their new venture or social enterprise, and those who have started trading, we provide a range of support and activities. The New Ventures Competition is for already established ventures, with the opportunity to win funding and business support. The Company Acceleration Programme (CAP) is new for 2009/10, and was created specifically for pre-existing businesses with growth potential.
So that we can engage with each University individually, we have 2 or 3 Student Interns on each campus, who promote SIE and their own University’s enterprise services, and also run their own local events, competitions, and enterprise society. They are managed locally by a member of University staff, the Enterprise Managers, who have experience in business advice and incubation, business and enterprise studies, and careers advice.
Most importantly, we want to emphasise to every student in Scotland that no matter what their degree, interests or current involvement with business, they can make enterprise an active part of their life and have the potential to be an entrepreneur.