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Social Enterprise Unit

The University of Hertfordshire’s Business School supports charities, voluntary work and third sector organisations with their Social Enterprise Unit (SEU).

The opportunity

Launched in December 2009, the Social Enterprise Unit was created to promote and facilitate the involvement of the University of Hertfordshire Business School students and staff with the local third sector. The Unit assists the local community by addressing the sector’s strategic issues, as well as practical difficulties.

The process

Local organisations are offered the Business School’s experience and expertise in various disciplines

Strategy
Marketing
HR
Accounting
Finance
Economics
Management
Information systems
Project management

The results

The SEU has provided successful support in many forms:

Encouraging active volunteering of the University’s staff and students
Embedding volunteering and/or fundraising for charities within areas of our curriculum
Providing academic support for our students who choose to focus on charities as their projects
Promoting and supporting short or long term placements in the volunteering sector
Utilising undergraduate and post graduate dissertations to address specific issues raised by the charities
Assisting applying for funding for research projects, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and other consultancy projects

The SEU has helped a range of clients, including Cancer Research UK, Damilola Taylor Trust, NSPCC, and Oxfam. Other organisations such as the Hertfordshire Chorus, Save the Children and Chiquitos have all achieved furthered success by working with the SEU:

The Hertfordshire Chorus (HC), one of the UK’s leading choirs, found it difficult to reach out to and recruit younger singers. The HC presented the case to the SEU, which identified a module that could address the issue successfully. The choir benefitted from a new branding strategy and academically supervised and assessed research reports addressed their business need. This partnership also enabled students to work directly with an organisation.
As part of the module Small Business and Entrepreneurship, students worked with Save the Children to raise awareness and money through the campaign ‘Pants 4 Poverty’. The students worked tirelessly to promote, push and pay out with a successful sell-out ‘Pants 4 Poverty’ night held at the student union bar. Overall the campaign raised £1500, more than any other localised event and leading student Vicky Hearn, went on to overcome 340.
Applicants to work as an Events Coordinator at the international children’s charity, Save the Children.
A project with The Restaurant Group, who own top food chain Chiquitos, Frankie and Benny’s and Garfunkel’s, involved students presenting their ideas on electronic marketing to the company’s senior management team. They were so impressed with the students’ ideas that they were invited to implement the project when they graduated.

The SEU has also successfully linked various organisations when approached for help:

The Hertfordshire charity, Hertfordshire Action on Disability (HAD) has a retail unit that provides a wide range of products to meet the needs of disabled people. However, the products for children were limited. The SEU established contact between HAD and Fledglings, a social enterprise specialising in supplies for children with disabilities.

In 2011, the SEU won a University of Hertfordshire Vice Chancellor’s Award for Community Engagement and was described as:

Awarded to team of staff who have undertaken innovative or creative, sustained and significant engagement on behalf of the University with the locality or the communities through one or more of the following: raising educational aspirations; promoting positive community relations, fostering social inclusion, engaging in community activities in social and economic sustainability, volunteering, sports or the arts.

“There are so many worthwhile causes in the area that are not aware of what their local University has to offer. Although they may benefit from 300,000 volunteers in Hertfordshire, the University’s Business School has the expertise, resources and knowledge that can also add value.”

Jan Filosof, Director of the Social Enterprise Unit, Business School, University of Hertfordshire