Ian Robertson on what the NCGE is all about...
“The NCGE is a national body that embeds entrepreneurship across higher education and we unite leaders and educators with students and graduates. There are different programmes and projects that we embed into the culture of higher education.
“There’s a number of ways we help graduates wanting to start a business. First there’s a mass workshop campaign, raising the profile and the ability for young graduates to set up a business.
“In the second stage we enrol students and graduates into a ‘Make it Happen’ programme, where we provide mentoring, support and we can bring in some funding for them and at an appropriate time pass them onto another body that supports them in their specific sector.”
On how the NCGE helps young entrepreneurs already running a business...
“The most important time for entrepreneurs is the first year to 18 months in business. We have hundreds of mentors and experts and access to every piece of funding that’s available in the UK.
We can match entrepreneurs up with the right mentoring, support and help them tackle sales issues
“We can match entrepreneurs up with the right mentoring, support and help them tackle sales issues. We can make introductions to help them, so for someone who’s already running a business, we do provide a lot of support.”
On advice and support for entrepreneurs wanting to start a franchise...
“We consider franchising as a reasonable route, and we tell entrepreneurs this when we’re mentoring them. We work with franchising organisations and we’ll bring in suitable experts, whether it is in the jewellery trade, retail or food franchises.
“We have the resources to bring in the experts and match people up and make that connection for entrepreneurs wanting to go into franchising.”
