Videoconferencing system installed!

We've been waiting for this for about 4 months, but we finally had the technicians and experts from ASYSCO in our building installing the Videoconferencing system! The system was designed from the outset to enable the three White Rose Universities involved in the CETLE (York, Leeds, Sheffield) to hold meetings and joint lectures/seminars and now that both York and Leeds have their systems installed we'll finally be a postition to do this!



As you can see from the pictures, we've gone for a dual-screen setup so that the remote site can be displayed on one side, and the presentation or video displayed on the other simultaneously. It also comes with radio mics, the ability to control the movement of the various cameras and a raft of other features and buttons that we dare not touch yet.

The opportunities this system opens up for the CETLE are huge. We're already talking to the Kauffman Institute and several universities in the USA about joint sessions and events, and closer to home, there will be several White Rose events put on over video conferencing in the next term or two. If you have an idea how we could use this, or want to use it yourself then please feel free to get in touch as well!

York Enterprise Scheme 2007

Developing sales for a specially ergonomically designed table for use with lap top computers was the top business plan to emerge from the 2007 York Enterprise Scheme. The Scheme is run as an optional part of the University's personal development programme, the York Award and attracted 21 students from a range of degree subjects. Alua Amirova and Mikhail Sudakov, both studying Economics and Finance, developed up their idea for a portable and comfortable lap top computer table into a viable business plan with the support of the Scheme's mix of taught sessions, free materials and professional business advice from York Business Advisory Service. They secured a cash prize for their efforts.

Ideas from other groups ranged from the sale of branded wrist bands to opening a fully formed theme park on the outskirts of Moscow. The Enterprise Scheme can be used for those simply interested in the how of business plan development to those with a serious intention to launch a business or social enterprise.

Learn more about the York Enterprise Scheme at http://www.york.ac.uk/services/careers/ya_courses.cfm?ID=28

Blog and website linked!

It's great when things work, and i'm happy to announce that this blog is now interlinked with the main website! The site now reads the 4 latest stories and displays a truncated version, along with a link to the RSS feed. This should allow us to keep anyone who's interested up to date with our activities no matter where they look!

Library satellite zone up and running! (almost)

Some people have been commenting that the satellite zone in the Library (L128) was still not up and running properly. So having a few hours spare today, I took the time to walk the remaining kit up the hill and install everything which was needed! The room is now almost fully operational, with the 3 workstation tables (same as those in the incubator in Vanbrugh) sorted out. The last remaining task is the custom software load - Simventure, Sage etc.

Other than that though, the room is there to be used! So feel free to book yourselves in using the online room booking system on the CETLE website, and gain access from the Library front desk.

Now this is an enterprising student!

What every sports fan requires, although what happens if you're not paying attention and laying down I'm not sure!

Click here

Working in Organisations - SPSW module delivery completed

One of the CETLE's recent successes has been with Social Policy. Robert Gunn put a bid into the Curriculum Development fund to develop a module for SPSW entitled "Working in Organisations"

The focus of the module is to introduce students to the core skills required to develop and manage a welfare organisation. EG setting up, managing and funding a welfare organisation and how skills such as community profiling, social entrepreneurship, business planning, marketing, human resource development, and the like, can best be used to achieve these tasks.

The course ran for the 10 weeks of this term and we are waiting for the first set of student feedback forms to be processed! If you're interested you can log in using your York user name and have a poke around the course materials here.

Photos and panoramas

We're going to be putting out quite a lot of publicity soon, what with the official opening coming up on the 16th April, and our desire to get more students involved! With that in mind we've been organising some photo shoots - here's a taster!

You can see loads more images from CETLE activities in our Photo Gallery.
You should also check out the CETLE website for some rather nice spinny panorama things which allow you to view inside the CETLE rooms without leaving the comfort of your chair!

Welcome to the CETLE Blog

Welcome

The White Rose Centre for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Enterprise enables students to develop enterprise skills so that they are equipped to....

No wait. You can read all that stuff on our website, this is supposed to be a bit more personal! Here you can really get a feel for what we do, who we are and whats going on in our corner of campus. It's quite exciting really - the CETLE has been around (ie funded) for a couple of years now, but we've finally got our hands on our newly refurbished and rather swish rooms so we can start doing things in a very obvious and public way.

Doing things? What do you do? I hear you ask. Good question right now to be honest, as we're still very much in the process of setting everything up but we've made an excellent start: We've got a total of 21 top-spec PC's and 3 apple G5's loaded with some of the best creative and design software around. We've supported York Entrepreneurs Club in running several of their events from The Apprentice to VentureQuest. We've now got 2 high profile student companies using our facilities - York Proms and The Yorker. We're starting to put on some of the planned workshops and training programs - George has been training people to use the macs to publish material to the websites, and hopefully Sage accounts training will be on the way soon!

Thats the obvious and "fun" activities. On the more academic side we've also pumped money into a number of departments to enable them to develop and teach enterprise in their courses so that even more students get a feel for the skills and attitude we believe are vital for anyone to be able to succeed out there in the big wide world any more.

So.. here's the blog - what's going to be put on here? Well, photo's of the CETLE - a photo diary if you will, showing how the place develops with time and recording some of the changing faces as we progress. More posts like this - comments and reflections on activities that have gone on, or are being planned and hopefully some guest spots - perhaps some posts by entrepreneurs saying how they did things, and what they think about a particular topic.

To be honest, we're not sure - this is a bit of an experiment so we might end up a long way from where we think we're heading right now. It'll be a fun journey though so keep checking back!