Design your Future programme winner

Posted on: 17 May 2021 in Enterprise

Design Your Future was a programme designed to help students to take an idea and develop it, over time, into a viable enterprise idea with a pitch presentation.

The programme ran virtually, covering ten different subject areas, delivered by ten industry experts over ten weeks. The format for each session was the same each week, ensuring students felt at ease and knew what to expect. This included: 45 minutes of delivery with interactive elements within a whole-group setting, 15 minutes of Question and Answer with the industry experts, and a takeaway task to personalise the knowledge gained to enhance their enterprise and put it into practice.

Subject areas covered included:

· Introduction and ‘what is enterprise’?

· Who is your customer?

· Ideation & Brainstorming with Sketchnoting

· Finance and Accountancy

· Legal & IP

· Marketing and Comms

· Keeping resilient (both personally and with your ideas)

· Writing a business plan

· Building a network

· Pitching and presenting

Although the sessions were recorded, students took advantage of attending each and every session to ensure they could interact and take value from the live elements on the day, meaning the programme had a 100% attendance and retention rate.

There was a competitive element to the programme with the best pitch winning an Apple iPad Pro. 40 students took part in Design Your Future – unfortunately, we could not award them all the best pitch and the standard of submissions was extremely high. The journey students had taken from an early idea stage through to a viable enterprise and pitch was outstanding. The value this programme has provided and the skills gained certainly made it a positive experience, evidenced from the feedback students have provided.

Some of the aspects students really enjoyed were:

- The fact the programme was delivered by industry professionals who could share their own personal experiences.

- The takeaway task element, as this enabled students to reflect on the content of the session, using this to see how it applied it to their own enterprise idea and taking action.

- The variety of content the programme provided.

- The opportunity to network and meet new people, especially during the pandemic.

- The structure of the sessions and support given through the programme between sessions.

- 100% of the students said this programme had enhanced their student experience.

After pitches were submitted, we had a panel, consisting of our enterprise team, shortlist the top three and ultimately decide on a winner.

Here are the top 3 shortlisted students: 

Nat Jenkins – Doorstep Diner

Find out more about Doorstep Diner here. 

Pheobe Baldwin – Fair To Look Fabulous

Find out more about Fair To Look Fabulous here.

Lois Sands – Things Under A Microscope

Find out more about Things Under A Microscope here.

Ultimately we could only choose one winner and that was Lois Sands. With a passion for science, the community, and championing STEM subjects, making science accessible for all, Lois has shown that

no matter what your subject area or background is, if you work hard and take advantage of opportunities like this, you can achieve anything.

“I started my page in lockdown last year as a hobby, and came across the Design Your Future programme at the start of the year. I started with an idea and a passion and I am finishing 10 weeks later with a business plan and the confidence to take it further. As someone with no prior knowledge in business, I have benefited from talks from industry professionals and now have a good idea of how to start my own business. I was unsure whether this was for me, as I didn’t know the first thing about business and only had an idea but I would recommend this programme to anyone, no matter how small your idea is. I now have the confidence to push this further and I am very excited to see how this develops!!” - Lois Sands

Both Nat Jenkins and Lois have also gone on to apply and successfully be awarded The Design Your Future Enterprise Fund to further develop and grow their enterprise.

The Design Your Future Enterprise Fund is offering awards varying from £500-£5000 to successful University of Liverpool students and graduates who want to develop an early-stage business idea or existing enterprise.

You do not need to have a start-up already running, however you will need to supply a business plan completed with as much detail as possible to show how the funding will help your business idea develop.

Applications will be open at intervals throughout the year, so if it is closed when you click the link, please email the contact and keep an eye on our webpages to find out when it is open again.

You can find out more and apply here. 

If you are interested in finding out more about our enterprise offering, make sure you check out our webpages here. 

If you would like to be first to find out about new upcoming programmes, activities and programmes both within the University and externally as well as meeting like-minded students with an interest in enterprise, why not join The Green Room. The Green Room is an MS Teams channel and WhatsApp group with over 160 students.

Join The Green Room today.