https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-baird-76728014/ Manchester Metropolitan University has a proud history of engaging and supporting the local region. Over a 20-year career in academia, I have innovated teaching practice empowering students to apply their learning to make a difference to them and their community. 10 years ago, I started with a £65k grant to support students to start social enterprises, along with facilitating innovation competitions in the Netherlands, and being a visiting scholar. This practitioner approach informed my teaching, culminating in these units and my PhD research on ‘What role does place play in social enterprise development?’
Following a year of implementation (2021 – 2022), the unit, Social Innovation through Entrepreneurship (SITE), has seen 600 students with 600 unique social enterprise ideas address four community challenges set by Oldham council, Oldham social enterprise network and the Mayor of Oldham. Six students now wish to set up social enterprises and have sought funding and support.
In addition, this now feeds into the Level 6 Community Project unit where 90 students map the social enterprise ecosystem of all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester and align an intervention to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and council policy and intermediary organisations within the social enterprise ecosystem of each borough. This results in an event in partnership with a key stakeholder in the social enterprise ecosystem. The event can be online, in person in the community or in person at Manchester Metropolitan University. An evaluation report and narrated screen recording are assessed and given to the social enterprise at the end of the intervention.
