How Hartlepool youngsters can learn how to start their own business

Lecturer Lauren Morrell, seciond right, with budding entrepreneurs, from left, Thomas Macalister, Connor Hocking, Jacqueline Taylor and Evie Macdonald

Hartlepool College of Further Education’s Creative Enterprise site – based in Unit 2 at The Bis, Whitby Street – started in September, helping a wide range of talented people get ideas off the ground.

The project is the idea of art and design lecturer Lauren Morrell and aims to provide more opportunities for students.

She said: “We are focusing on the key areas: planning, launching, running and sustaining for a future as a budding entrepreneur.

“Unit 2 is a fantastic place to start. With a communal atrium, a small gallery space wall to exhibit your work. Offering networking opportunities, you’ll find yourself with other like-minded people to motivate you as you grow.”

She added: “Students from our college are often underrepresented in having opportunities to create small businesses, they don’t see a pathway into university but desire the ability to use their creativity to secure a financial income."

With funding help from Hartlepool charity the PFC Trust, each student is provided with their own workspace and a laptop as part of the support to grow their business and study towards a Level 4 Professional Diploma in Creative Enterprise.

Maria Archbold, the college’s head of school for professional and creative studies, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for students who have an ambition. It gives them a location to base themselves from in the first year with no rental outlay due to the generosity of the PFC Trust."

The opportunity to access business premises within a creative community is an exclusive selling point of the provision.

Hartlepool College says strives to support its creative enterprise students to become independent and successful after launching their business.

The protection and support received in the first year has attracted 11 students to enrol on this year’s course and the college says it fully expects the numbers to rise for the next intake.

The PFC Trust was founded by EuroMillions winners Patrick and Frances Connolly to support the community in Hartlepool where they lived for 25 years.

To apply for a place on the creative enterprise course and for a workspace at The Bis, email Enquires@Hartlepoolfe.ac.uk.