Tuesday, December 15, 2009

University of Northampton launches social entrepreneurship degree

I have just learned through the SEEM (Social Enterprise East Midlands) newsletter that 'the University of Northampton has become one of the first universities in the UK to launch a degree in social enterprise'. The course fact sheet begins with a quote

“We don't hire people to bake brownies; we
bake brownies to hire people"
Guiding principles of Greyston Bakery, who make
brownies for Ben and Jerry’s Icecream

I like that. Social enterprises are businesses with a social aim. For them the people come first. The business arises out of the need. It's not just about making money. This is one of the themes I covered in my presentation at the university. We started our enterprise as Safe Kids Walking with the aim of promoting walking to school. To rephrase the above quote "we don't promote walking to school to sell high vis; we sell high vis to promote walking to school"

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