The £1.3m grant, which was announced by the Minister in a recent Parliamentary debate, has enabled the graduate-led charity to begin a comprehensive project establishing enterprise societies at every university and college campus in England.  Almost 30% of the grant will go directly to enterprise societies, through an Innovation Fund scheme.

In a Westminster Hall debate on Young Entrepreneurs, Mark Prisk said,

“This year we will put more than £1 million into NACUE, to make sure that the number of entrepreneurial clubs goes up from 40 or 50 to 90 during this Parliament.  That is important, because they are not just clubs; they are the focal point for setting up competitions and other entrepreneurial opportunities, and for bringing in the other things that universities can do, such as establishing incubators.”

NACUE has committed to providing access to an enterprise society for every student by 2015.  The organisation believes that training and connecting students in this way will help achieve its ultimate vision of creating the most entrepreneurial generation ever.

Prisk also referred to NACUE’s goal of rolling out enterprise societies into FE colleges.  He said,

“We have also given NACUE the task of rolling out entrepreneur clubs to about 160 [college] campuses by the end of this Parliament, so that we will be dealing with schools, universities and colleges.”

News of the grant comes at a significant time for NACUE; the organisation hosted its annual Leaders Training Conference on the weekend, a prestigious event that sees enterprise society presidents from up and down the country gather in London for two days of keynotes, workshops, and networking.  This year’s conference was hosted at the iconic Senate House in Bloomsbury.

The conference also coincided with NACUE’s annual Society Awards Dinner, where the very societies that the government grant is supporting received awards based on their performance and enterprise initiatives over the year.

NACUE CEO Hushpreet Dhaliwal said,

“This year’s Leaders Training Conference was all about celebrating the fantastic enterprise activities that are happening on campuses all over the UK.  I’m thrilled that the government is once again getting behind our vision of allowing access to enterprise societies for all.”