Employability

Dr Cable signed the letter confirming that Plymouth University and media partners the Western Morning News could begin the process of funding SME business development in the South West to the tune of £1m.

On a special visit to the University on Thursday, Dr Cable met a number of businesses already working with the institution through its operation of several innovation and incubation centres in Devon and Cornwall as part of the Growth Acceleration and Investment Network (GAIN).

David Gibson, from Ballinderry, is the first person in Europe to receive the accolade, from the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

He was recognised for his work in promoting enterprise education throughout Queen’s, the UK’s Entrepreneurial University of the Year in 2009.  His work has seen him introduce a model of enterprise teaching into courses not traditionally associated with enterprise, including nursing and the arts.

The Enterprise Secret by David Gibson is a fictional story set at Christmas time. It follows the fortunes of an unemployed graduate, a struggling small business owner and a redundant executive as they attempt to create their own destiny using enterprise skills.

David, from Ballinderry, Co. Antrim, was recently named one of the world’s top three enterprise educators, by the United States Association of Business Educators. The Enterprise Secret is his fifth book, but his first work of fiction.

This figure is calculated across a range of factors including: procurement of goods and services; off-campus expenditure of staff and students; visitor spend; number of students in the regional workforce and business and community interactions.

The figures have been released as the University holds its graduation week, which in itself attracts 16,000 visitors to the city, spending over £530,000 in just 10 days.

The University of Plymouth hosted the ‘Graduates into Work’ session last month and was so inundated with requests that it is laying on a follow-up on Wednesday 19 May.

‘Graduates into Work’ is designed to help those out-of-work to assess their career options and their development needs, view and apply for current graduate job vacancies, access career advice, find out about business start-up support and learn about postgraduate study and the alumni programme.