Liverpool has scooped a major award at Europe’s ‘education Oscars’!
Liverpool John Moores University, with the support of Liverpool City Council, won the European Commission’s “Investing In Entrepreneurial Skills Award”, at the 10th European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA).
LJMU beat off competition from nine other European countries including Italy and Latvia to win the award, which recognised the university’s Enterprise Educators Academe for its innovative and impactful approach to embedding enterprise skills across the teaching curriculum to improve student entrepreneurialism.
LJMU’s Professor David Gibson OBE, who conducted extensive research to identify the enterprise skills required to become an entrepreneur or innovator, was on hand to collect the prestigious award (centre in picture).
Assistant Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Gary Millar said: “As a former student, Honorary Fellow and Mayor Anderson’s lead on business, I didn’t hesitate in adding my support with this application and also with the great work they do in enterprise skills. This is well deserved and recognises one key area where investment reaps massive dividends for students, businesses and jobs.”
LJMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Nigel Weatherill said: “This is fantastic achievement for the university and for the city of Liverpool. These awards are testament to our commitment to making Liverpool one of the great entrepreneurial cities in the world and equipping our students with acumen to graduate job-ready and become the entrepreneurs of the future.”
This is the second win this year for LJMU’s Enterprise Educators’ Academe which received a national ‘Building Enterprise Skills’ award at the Government’s Enterprising Britain Awards, in September.
The Academe, set up just two years ago has trained and supported over 300 academic staff across all subject areas, ensuring ‘enterprise skills’ competencies are embedded across the LJMU curriculum.
Enterprise skills are now embedded in more than 150 degree programme pathways, reaching more than 17,000 students. Due to the success of the model, it is now being rolled out to several other educational institutions within Liverpool.
The European Commission’s European Enterprise Promotion Awards reward those who promote entrepreneurship and small business at the national, regional and local level. Initiatives from all EU countries, as well as Iceland, Serbia, and Turkey took part in the competition. Since 2006, over 2,800 projects have entered the awards and together they have supported the creation of thousands of new companies.
- The winners of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards was announced on Nov 24th at an awards ceremony at the SME Assembly, which is part of European SME Week.
