Local business woman Melissa Mason was awarded a one-year membership to the Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce for her work self-publishing educational children’s books at a Dragon’s Den-style pitching competition hosted by the University of Bedfordshire.
The competition was part of the institution’s involvement in the national Pathways4Recovery initiative, which aims to provide economically inactive and unemployed individuals with the opportunity to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions by removing financial barriers.
Held on the University’s Luton campus by the Research & Innovation Service (RIS), a group of entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to share their business ideas and practice their pitching skills in front of a panel of judges that included Mohammad Azam, Senior Lecturer and MBA Portfolio Lead at the University – and industry experts such as Debbie Lewis, Regional Ecosystem Manager for NatWest Business.
This event is just one of the ways that the University is dedicated to supporting start-ups and businesses through RIS. Bedfordshire was recently recognised for its entrepreneurial achievements, ranking first in a study of the UK’s most entrepreneurial universities.
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