Have you ever considered a career in the private sector after your studies? Maybe you fancy yourself as the next Alan Sugar or Richard Branson? Perhaps you’d simply like a chance to develop transferable skills like managing and team-working? If you answered YES to any of these questions maybe you should consider entering the next Young Entrepreneur Scheme (or YES) competition.
The discipline-specific YES competitions involve groups creating a hypothetical company related to their field of research. The groups then have to develop business models, plans and forecasts and ultimately pitch to a panel of judges, convincing them to invest in their companies.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to enter the competition as the University of Manchester has a great track record. This year a team from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) were the overall winners of Engineering YES and in 2010 a team from the Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) won the UK final of Biotech YES and were flown out to Houston, Texas for the grand final!
The ^Pinnacle team.
STEPS spoke to the two winning teams, ^Pinnacle (Engineering YES) and Microbe Solutions (Biotech YES), to get an insight into what it’s like to enter the competition. It seems the entrants not only had a great deal of fun but also enjoyed meeting new people. Chris Cobb from Microbe Solutions said, ‘The people we met along the way, whether it was other students, mentors or judges were always so friendly and contributed towards a huge network of support both during and after the competition’. Michael Conti-Ramsden from ^Pinnacle added, ‘Working with team ^Pinnacle was great fun (bar a few tiffs at four in the morning over pitch structure!) and I enjoyed developing our business proposition as part of this able and dynamic team.’
Microbe Solutions — Left to Right; Elizabeth Wright, Carmine Cicelli, Christal Fisher, Chris Cobb, Laura Davies.
As with any rewarding endeavour the competition isn’t without its challenges. When we asked Christal Fisher from Microbe Solutions what she found challenging she didn’t beat around the bush: ‘Everything! I didn’t know anything about running a business when I started out in the competition. It was a steep learning curve but there was plenty of help and information provided along the way, and once you’ve learnt the language it’s all a lot easier.’
The personal and professional gain from rising to these challenges can be well worth it. Several past entrants of Biotech YES have started their own businesses, three of which have attracted over £5 million in investment. Even if you don’t want to start your own business the skills gained can help in your future career. More than three quarters of the previous entrants have secured jobs in the private sector. Laura Davies (Microbes Solutions) said, ‘I am now much more confident that I can look for a career outside of academia. I have a great example of team leading and team work to put on my CV and have learned a lot about biotechnology and enterprise.’
So what advice would the previous winners give to people considering entering the 2012 competition? Elizabeth Wright (Microbe Solutions) said, ‘I would tell anyone who is thinking about entering to take part – we learned so much from the competition and had a great time doing it. We made so many contacts from the industry and got the chance to attend a lot of incredible events such as the BioIndustry Association gala dinner in the natural history museum, as well as the Rice University Business Plan Competition in Houston.’ Her team mate Chris added, ‘I would thoroughly recommend entering the Biotechnology YES competition, or one of its sister competitions in Engineering or Environment, to any postgraduate student.’
If you’re interested in entering the Engineering, Biotech or Environment YES competitions keep your eyes peeled for details from your faculty skills trainer and updates on the STEPS blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page. You can read more about the ^Pinnacle team here.
Written by Elizabeth Granger
Editor’s note ~ This article has been ammended. The print edition stated that ^Pinnacle made it to the final of Engineering YES.
UPDATE! Engineering YES 2012 opened for booking on 21 November. Visit their website for more details and to book a place. There are over £2000 worth of cash prizes up for grabs!
Filed under: Issue 21 Tagged: | Beyond the PhD, competition, development, employability, enterprise, entrepreneurial skills
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