By Nisa Dari
Students who have business ideas are being invited to join a scheme to help them explore their entrepreneurial projects.
The Crucible project is a DMU accelerator project for graduates who have a business idea. It’s essentially a programme where graduates can join and explore their entrepreneurship by having support to grow a new business which is based at the Innovation Centre in Oxford Street.
Lee Paxman-Clarke, who is a consultant for the Crucible event at DMU, said the entrepreneurship programme will give students who have business ideas a great opportunity to improve their skills or knowledge to start one.
Mr Paxman-Clarke said: “The Crucible is really good because you’re entering a course where the path is kind of laid out for you and you just have to put in the effort and go along with the journey to see how it comes out at the end.”
The team invite independent experts to come in to teach on the project, through Crucible masterclasses. Some of them are for finance, marketing, copyright, or web design. Those masterclasses are designed to be for a start-up person.
Mr Paxman-Clarke said: “A key part of the masterclasses is having an expert in that room for them to go jump around and talk to different people so they can talk to them individually about their business.”
The experts talk to the students from the perspective that they know very little about this subject and what they need to know as a new business owner or a start-up.
These classes run throughout the year, but the project also has mentors and access to other experts throughout the year to guide them along.
Mr Paxman-Clarke said: “The success for us is also a DMU graduate coming out with more skills than they had before.”
The team ask entrepreneurs to come in and say from their experience what new entrepreneurs need to know and to give them that new knowledge.
