A new spirit of entrepreneurship is being fostered at Harrogate College - led by North Yorkshire's businesses.
The college is introducing entrepreneurial activities across all its subjects to ensure its students are well-prepared for the workplace by the time they gain their qualifications.
With the county’s economy being dominated by small to medium sized enterprises (SME), the idea is to equip students with the skills to help them set up their own businesses, or contribute to existing SMEs, when they enter the workplace.
The move will see representatives from local firms coming in to lead masterclasses on a variety of subjects to give insights into different industries and business practices.
The participating companies will include Haddletons, Mumbler, Annabel’s Deliciously British and A-Game Consultancy.
Students will also be asked to pull together business plans and present pitches as the college-wide ‘entrepreneurial curriculum’ is rolled out.
Deputy Head of Department of Digital Transformation at Harrogate College, Mike Garrod, said:
“We invited local employers to tell us what they wanted from our students when they leave, and then we built this scheme to deliver that. Our governor, James Haddleton - the CEO of law firm Haddletons - played a key role in this, and assembling the key group of businesses involved in setting it up.
“The feedback provided us with a list of things that were important for our learners to have. Those included transferable skills, such as resilience, confidence and self-awareness, and also very specific topics like: how to network effectively, selling yourself to stand out, how to run a professional meeting, managing up and what does success look like?
“We used that as the basis to create this year-long programme, the entrepreneurial curriculum, which will see teachers across all our subjects run the students through an employability-related subject each week - and we’ll be getting employers in to give masterclasses on some of them.”
The employer visits and talks are also designed to introduce students to the standards that are expected in the workplace. Some electrical and business students got an idea of what to expect recently when Jacqui Swift, Chief Operating Officer at Haddletons, came in to run a pilot masterclass on communication.
Mr Garrod said:
“Jacqui ran the event like a professional meeting, which was a bit of a surprise and a culture shock to some students, but is exactly what was needed.”
The college prides itself on its collaboration with firms and organisations across the district, across all sectors, and works regularly with the likes of Rudding Park, Techbuyer, RHS Garden Harlow Carr and Harrogate District Hospital.
It will be inviting guests from many of its partner organisations to help deliver the entrepreneurship curriculum over the coming year, and especially in 2026 when the activities will step up in intensity.
Mr Garrod added:
“After Easter the programme will focus more on practical entrepreneurial skills and see the students starting a business and drawing up business plans and looking deeper into things like finance, areas that will be really usable when they enter the workplace.
“Then, at the end of the academic year, this will culminate in a Dragon’s Den style pitch where they will present, and really try to sell, their ideas.”
Statistics for 2024 showed that North Yorkshire has more than 37,500 businesses, spanning a wide range of industries including construction, agriculture, hospitality, professional services, motor vehicle repair and health and social care.
The college is currently building a £22m new campus that will be kitted out with industry-standard facilities to ensure it can keep providing top quality training support for these sectors as they evolve.
Any businesses interested in supporting the initiative can find out more by emailing the college’s Performance & Projects Coordinator at: Lynn-Yang.Liu@harrogate.ac.uk.
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