Member Article

Gateshead College heads North East MADE delegation

Gateshead College will head a North East delegation this week to MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival in Sheffield (19–21 September), cementing its ambition to become one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurial colleges.

Attending as a member of the Gazelle Colleges group alongside its FE corporate partner the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, college students will be participating in world-class events which showcase entrepreneurship and the latest thinking.

These will include practical sessions, workshops, exhibitions and a debate focusing on how FE colleges need to adapt in order to give students the best chance of a successful working life.

Gateshead College is a founder of Gazelle Global who is a headline sponsor for the event. Gazelle Global was created by five college principals who include Richard Thorold, Gateshead’s principal and CEO, with the aim of bringing the public and private sector together to transform education.

They plan to deliver a nationwide network of local businesses and entrepreneurs who will collaborate with colleges, principals and students to achieve a more entrepreneurial mindset in FE and increase students’ chances of success.

Gazelle believes that entrepreneurs can contribute to colleges by providing practical ‘learning by doing’ opportunities to inspire students to create jobs - not take them.

As ambassadors, Gateshead College students will be tasked with bringing back their MADE experience to their local communities to inspire their peers and to garner the support and advice of local entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Richard Thorold, principal and chief executive of Gateshead College, said MADE would raise the national profile of the work the college is doing in transforming itself into a Gazelle entrepreneurial college.

He added: “We are delighted our students will be at MADE, with its stellar line up of speakers. It’ll be a unique opportunity for them to access entrepreneurial skills, thinking and leadership at the highest levels.

“However, it will not just be for our students to get inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit, but for the entrepreneurs themselves to get inspired by some of the innovative and exciting projects the students are doing.”

Gazelle is being supported by entrepreneurs such as Claire Young, Founder of School Speakers, Ben Ramsden, Founder of Pants to Poverty, Doug Richard, Founder of School for Start-Ups and Peter Jones CBE, Founder of Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.

They are all ‘Gazelle Entrepreneurs’, a group of highly successful entrepreneurs who are committed to bringing their knowledge and experience of building and growing successful enterprises into the heart of the further education sector.

The MADE programme gets underway on Wednesday with student workshops facilitated by Ben Ramsden and Claire Young.

Other events include a panel debate on ‘Rise of the Digital Entrepreneur’ in association with Wired. Guest speakers will include Penny Power, ‘Gazelle Entrepreneur’ and Founder of the Digital Youth Academy, and Jude Ower, Founder of PlayMob.

The panel will provide a snapshot of a sector that demonstrated rapid growth, discussing what it means to be a digital entrepreneur and considering the developing role of digital in education.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andy Bruce .