Winning the Small Business Charter Excellence Awards

In a world driven by innovation and economic growth, small businesses serve as the beating heart of entrepreneurial spirit. It is with great pride that we announce the recent recognition bestowed upon LCF's Fashion Business School (FBS) during the inaugural Small Business Charter (SBC) Excellence Awards. FBS not only secured the coveted 'Outstanding Support for Small Business' award for the groundbreaking Fashion District initiative, but was also shortlisted in all three categories of SBC's prestigious accolades.

We had the pleasure of catching up with Dan Henderson, Associate Dean for Enterprise at LCF, to hear his response to this remarkable achievement.

Could you share with us the key initiatives or strategies that led to the recognition for Outstanding Support for Small Business?

We are thrilled to have won the inaugural award for providing ‘Outstanding Support for Small Business’ for the ground-breaking Fashion District Festival. This award was in recognition of the most innovative and impactful initiative provided to support small business growth.

Fashion District was also awarded an SBC exemplar during the SBC accreditation process in January 2022 where we demonstrated how technology, business and education can be brought together to nurture talent, create a network of affordable workspaces, support business and job growth and develop innovative new products to drive economic and social transformation in east London.

Our first-ever festival, (now an award-winning festival!) was held over six days showcasing the powerful alliances formed with SMEs and igniting a sense of community excitement, all aimed at empowering start-ups to flourish. The event featured an impressive line-up of 37 SMEs, 46 expert speakers, 14 panel discussions, and 15 community workshops, drawing an audience of 1,200 attendees. This helped to establish Fashion District Festival and the mission to build a global identity for east London fashion and for east London fashion SMEs. The Fashion District Festival was an imaginative and innovative collaboration and experience for all participants.

Building on our success, we are doing it again! The upcoming second edition of the Fashion District Festival will be held in the vibrant Spitalfields area from 11-16 July 2023 and will continue to embody the values of sustainability, innovation, and community engagement. With over 40 captivating events, including pop-ups, swap shops, styling masterclasses, upcycling workshops, and interactive experiences, the festival promises an unforgettable opportunity to shop, explore, learn, create, and network. We look forward to seeing you at this extraordinary celebration!

This award acknowledges FBS' exceptional stakeholder engagement, highlighting its ability to cultivate strong relationships and collaborations within the fashion industry. How has your school successfully fostered these meaningful connections with stakeholders?

The recognition was based on FBS' outstanding engagement with various stakeholders, aimed at supporting the growth of SMEs through collaborative activities. These activities promote the co-creation of knowledge, and the development of practices that provide significant expertise benefiting all stakeholders involved. Notably, Fashion District received high commendation for their exceptional stakeholder engagement activities, specifically the support for the Covid-19 recovery process and the growth of fashion SMEs.

Fashion District achieved this commendation by addressing two key challenges posed by the pandemic: helping businesses become 'investment ready' and fostering innovation. Working in collaboration with 19 key partners and leveraging the potential of our new East Bank campus in Stratford, we organised 10 engaging place-making and capacity-building activities. These activities further supported the growth of SMEs in the fashion industry. Notable initiatives included investment readiness events and activities designed to strengthen innovative practices among local fashion businesses.

The combined efforts of these collaborative activities resulted in the creation of new connections and facilitated knowledge exchange between start-ups, established brands, investors, manufacturers, public sector entities, and educational institutions. In total, we provided support to 149 SMEs, generating a significant impact on the industry.

Being shortlisted for Outstanding Support for Student Enterprise and Entrepreneurship is a fantastic accomplishment. Could you elaborate on the specific programs or resources your school offers to empower and nurture students' entrepreneurial spirit? Additionally, how do you measure the success of these initiatives?

Being shortlisted was a significant achievement as all shortlisted entries were essentially highly commended for their outstanding and innovative approaches to developing and delivering student enterprise and entrepreneurship and embedding this into student culture to provide opportunities for lifelong learning. We have been successfully embedding enterprise education into our three schools for several years now, with FBS working closely with the Graduate Futures Enterprise team. Together, we have created an 'LCF Enterprise Pipeline' to deliver one of LCF's four strategic priorities, 'encouraging enterprise and incubation to support our students, alumni, and the wider fashion economy,' in readiness for our move east in September 2023. Moreover, the LCF Enterprise Pipeline has now grown so successfully that its impact was recognised and published in Guiding Policy 1 of the UAL 2022-2032 strategy, 'The world needs creativity'.

In terms of specific programmes, entrepreneurial spirit is embedded across our three schools' curricula, within units, as defined by stand-alone units, through the FBS and SMC Enterprise Pathway, and LCF's Enterprise Diploma in Professional Studies (EDiPS). Graduate Futures produces podcasts and webinars, holds student 1-2-1s, collaborates with our Practitioners/Entrepreneurs in Residence, and notably holds the annual LCF Enterprise Challenge, where the winning finalist receives £5,000 of seed funding.

Success can be measured in many ways and three are presented below. Firstly, the data submitted for this award showed: -

• 1,385 unique students were engaged in curriculum activities (26% of LCFs student population).
• 41 courses (68% of all LCF UG/PG courses) had embedded enterprise.
• 668 curriculum activities were delivered.
• 158 new teaching materials were produced.
• 452 students from under-represented groups were reached.
• 58 SMEs engaged in curriculum delivery across LCF to support the student experience.
• 917 unique students engaged in extracurricular activities (17% of LCFs student population).
• 72 one-to-ones were provided to our students by our Practitioners/Entrepreneurs in Residence.
• 1,993 unique students viewed 12 enterprise webinars.
• 73 new founders joined LCF Founders Club which now totals 305 members since its launch in 2017/18.
• 57 one-to-ones were provided to our Founders Club members.

Secondly, the feedback we receive from students is extremely positive as to how we deliver and support enterprise education within and outside of the curriculum. Across LCF, we have supported 139 students to start their businesses which significantly contributed to UAL becoming the number one university in the UK for launching student start-ups, according to the last reporting period provided by the Higher Education Statistical Agency.

All in all, it was a real collaborative effort and FBS could not be prouder of our LCF colleagues who have been involved with the Small Business Charter, our students, and our wider SME community who partner with us to secure awards such as these.