Promoting Entrepreneurship as a career and supporting young and aspiring entrepreneurs in 2021. Introducing TwinklHive’s Business Programme: Introduction to Entrepreneurship.
Following on from the launch of the TwinklHive Scholarship in Summer 2020, TwinklHive are expanding their offer of support to young and aspiring entrepreneurs through their brand new Business Programme: Introduction to Entrepreneurship.
Navigating through the entrepreneurial landscape can be tricky at the best of times and access to entrepreneurial support and advice has been made more challenging in recent months due to COVID. For people at the start of their entrepreneurial journey, advice and support can be the guiding light needed to maximise the chance of launching a successful and sustainable business. To assist individuals with their exploration of start-up ideas and in preparation for the TwinklHive Scholarship grant, TwinklHive has created a business programme.
TwinklHive is a business accelerator based in Sheffield which supports missional founders by providing space, blended investment and support to accelerate the growth of innovative companies. Launching back in 2019 with the aim to expand Twinkl’s mission to help those who teach, TwinklHive has since invested in and supported several EdTech businesses that have found new and innovative ways to solve educators’ problems. Since its launch, TwinklHive has expanded its criteria to also support a variety of start-ups in the tech sector, including FinTech and HealthTech companies. TwinklHive has been working to extend its support to the start-up ecosystem more widely by assisting and supporting young and aspiring entrepreneurs who may not yet meet their investment criteria, ultimately contributing to the development of the new businesses of the future.
Last summer, TwinklHive took their first big step in encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship in their local region of South Yorkshire. August 2020 saw the launch of the TwinklHive Scholarship fund, and the Sheffield-based accelerator is thrilled to be running the scholarship for a second year, starting in September 2021. This year the scholarship has been extended, with the grant offering being rolled out nationwide. The scholarship sees budding young entrepreneurs, aged between 18 and 24 years old, receive up to £40,000 each to help them grow their businesses. The successful candidates also receive six months of support from the TwinklHive team in the shape of mentorship, co-working space and access to Hive’s expansive network. The aim of the scholarship is to support young people and highlight the entrepreneurial career path. Ideal candidates for the scholarship will have a alidated concept for a technology-enabled business with a clear vision that solves a pressing problem, and be prepared to work on that business full time for 6 months.
In 2021. TwinklHive will be focusing on outreach and helping more entrepreneurs than ever before as the scholarship goes nationwide and the business programme launches, helping to prepare prospective scholarship recipients by providing them with the tools needed to take an idea and turn it into a viable concept for a business. Completion of the programme also secures attendees with an invitation to pitch their concept to the TwinklHive panel for feedback, and if applicable, for a place on the TwinklHive Scholarship programme as discussed above. It is important to note that the free programme is inclusive to all, anyone of any age regardless of if they are interested in the scholarship is encouraged to sign up, as long as they have an interest in businesses and entrepreneurship, the programme will be of great interest.
The free online business programme is made up of eight live interactive sessions, spanning 10 weeks between March and May 2021. The main aim is to empower people with the confidence, knowledge and practical skills to explore entrepreneurship and develop their own business ideas into successful start-ups.
The programme has been designed to:
- provide individuals with an opportunity to develop a number of key entrepreneurial skills.
- provide a step-by-step approach on how to start a business from the ground up.
- inspire the generation of new business ideas.
“The people behind the TwinklHive Business Programme, including myself, know how challenging but also how rewarding the early stages of developing a business can be and we’re excited to offer a programme where people can learn directly from our experiences.”
“The exposure offered on the programme will help participants to kick start their own entrepreneurial journey, letting them develop the skills, knowledge and confidence to launch their own mission led start-ups. TwinklHive was created to support businesses that are set to make a difference to others and we hope that this programme will be an extension of this and help aspiring entrepreneurs, whatever stage they are at.”
Jonathan Seaton, CEO and Co-founder of Twinkl and Director of TwinklHive
All sessions are 1 hour in length and start at 5pm. See below for a full outline of each session and its objective:
Session 1 : Identifying Business Opportunities — 16.03.21
Session Objective: To understand types of business opportunities and understand how the course ahead will help you to develop the skills needed to refine and develop future ideas.
Session 2 : Introduction to Innovation — 23.03.21
Session Objective: To understand the principles behind innovation and how they can be used to help develop and drive potential business ideas.
Session 3 : Problem Validation — 30.03.21
Session Objective: To develop a wider and deeper set of innovation skills by exploring problem validation.
Session 4 : Solution Ideation — 20.04.21
Session Objective: To develop and expand on your thoughts and findings from session 3 by exploring and practising solution ideation techniques.
Session 5 : Testing — 27.04.21
Session Objective: Develop the innovation skills to test your solutions, implement continuous testing to your concept and consider how to build your MVP.
Session 6 : Understanding your Market — 04.05.21
Session Objective: To learn how to analyse potential markets for your venture and identify competitors.
Session 7 : Crafting a Business Model — 11.05.21
Session Objective: Take your concept to the next step by learning about how to craft a business model.
Session 8 : Pitching your Venture — 18.05.21
Session Objective: To learn the different funding options available and consider how to share your entrepreneurial vision with external stakeholders by developing and improving your business pitching skills.
