Explore It Award

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Celebrating entrepreneurship at BSU with this year’s Explore It Award winners

Bath Spa University’s Careers and Employability Team has announced the winners of this year’s Explore It Enterprise Award – celebrating the innovative and entrepreneurial drive of the University’s students and alumni.   

The Careers and Employability Team works hard to support the entrepreneurship of BSU students. Committed to breaking down barriers and preparing students for any job they turn their hand to; the team has helped countless students turn their passions into profit.   

Led by the Enterprise strand of Careers and Employability, Explore It is open to students and recent graduates, offering each awardee a £500 grant and coaching sessions, enabling the exploration, development and refinement of their enterprise idea.

Students and graduates across 30 of the University’s courses threw their hats in the ring this year, hoping to develop their professional creativity in the real world. From a selection of 40 outstanding applicants, 29 were shortlisted and invited to pitch their ideas to the University’s panel.   

Successful in their efforts, 18 entrepreneurs were selected as the winners of the Explore It Award 2024. The application rate is a demonstration of the exceptional entrepreneurial interest and versatility of talent at BSU, with ideas ranging from business propositions and product launches to side hustles, new services, and business start-ups.   

The selected business proposals included the development of new organic hair care products, the establishment of a timber mill to build sustainable cabins for camping sites and vacation rentals, and a furniture company focusing on the production of long-lasting furniture led by Vouge-featured graduate, Gigi Cooke.  

Celebrating their achievements in style, the Careers and Employability Team is hosting an event in honour of this year’s Explore It Award winners. On 29 May, awardees will have the opportunity to network and display their products or information about their services to the wider University.   

Discussing the importance of the award, Tiffany Frye, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Manager at BSU said:  

"We’re really proud of the students for their bravery in exploring and testing their ideas. Whether or not all awardees go on to fully launch their businesses, we believe it is an important and instructive experience to be able to test ideas in the real world, and this funding helps them to do that.”  

All awardees will have the chance to take their ideas to the next level in the next stage of the University’s enterprise funding, with two more Programmes, supported by Santander Universities, available to students and graduates: Launch It and Grow It.   

The perfect stepping stone, the Launch It Programme promises awardees up to £2,000 in addition to coaching support and workshops to help them launch their business. Once students and graduates have successfully started their business, the Grow It Programme offers up to £5,000 and support to help them expand and make a splash in their chosen marketplace.  

Interested in kickstarting your career? Launch It and Grow It will open for applications on 1 May. Any current student or recent graduate can apply for the enterprise awards.