Global Entrepreneurship Week - where ideas come to life

Staff and students at Gower College Swansea have celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week with a range of events and activities across the campus.

The week kicked off with a visit by Art and Design students to Swansea Business Gate and the film set of Da Vinci’s Demons, where they learned all about the kinds of employment opportunities that exist in the film and television industry.

Elsewhere, a team of Digital Technology students represented the college in a Formula 1 competition at Swansea University where, given £40m in virtual money, they raced to see who had the most profitable team.

IT students visited Tech Hub Swansea where co-founder, and ex-Gower College Swansea student Adam Curtis, inspired them with his story of starting up a tech business from scratch.

Another former student - Nicola Craig, who now works at Machynys Spa - visited Hair and Beauty students as they were challenged to design a new product and pitch their business plan to a panel of judges.

A workshop on employability skills was arranged for Creative Media students and ‘Big Ideas’ role model George Sava dropped in to deliver a variety of interactive workshops to Digital Technology students.

Mango Bikes founder Ben Harrison, who appeared on the BBC’s Be Your Own Boss, also dropped by to offer his unique take on how students can make the most of their business brainwaves.

“Our aim is to inspire students to start their entrepreneurial journey by bringing their ideas to life,” says Enterprise Project Officer Lucy Turtle. “Whatever their idea, we want them to be passionate about it and, by linking up with local entrepreneurs, mentors and inspirational speakers, we believe they’ll be encouraged to go out there and just do it!”

The culmination of the event was a Start-Up Weekend competition held at the Dylan Thomas Centre, one of over 200 similar events taking place worldwide.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is supported by the Welsh Government.