Former Apprentice star leads campaign to bring social
entrepreneurship vision to schools
InspirEngage International teams up with leading social entrepreneurship
organisation, UnLtd
With 400,000 teenagers enrolling on to college courses that do not lead to jobs1,
three leading support organisations have joined forces to inspire young people to
develop their social entrepreneurship vision. Melody Hossaini’s InspirEngage
International, UnLtd’s youth initiative Live UnLtd and Xing Education have launched
Create Your Career, a competition which aims to encourage young people aged 11
to 16 to think about starting a social venture and how it could lead to a career.
To help the young people get started, they will have access to an ideas notebook,
support from a Live UnLtd development manager in their area and £500 of funding,
as well as access to a Skills Bootcamp delivered by InspirEngage. Social ventures
could range from sporting activities, intergenerational themes to groups hosting
recreational events. Clothes recycling and redesign workshops, anti-gun crime
merchandise, street dance classes and a tap water bottle refill network are just some
of the ideas that young people in the UK today are turning into successful social
ventures.
Josie Emberton, Head of Live UnLtd said, “It’s time for young people in schools to get
the chance to become social entrepreneurs, that’s why we are delighted to be
running Create Your Career with InspirEngage and Xing Education. Young people
from across the UK will be able to lead their own social ventures, as well as receiving
cash and support from the Live UnLtd team; this will open up the world of social
entrepreneurship further than we have ever done before. It is super exciting and
ambitious, but will hopefully encourage the next generation of social entrepreneurs.”
Meloday Hossaini, founder of InspirEngage continued, “Introducing social
entrepreneurship as a viable career choice for young people has been high on the
agenda for InspirEngage, which is why we’re delighted to be a part of Create Your
Career alongside Live UnLtd and Xing.
1
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/The%20Wolf%20Report.pdf
An idea can be great and you can have the funding too, but young people tell us they
require hands-on support to develop their Life Skills and use practical tools allowing
them to launch their social venture – that’s what the InspirEngage Skills Bootcamps
are for.”
Xing Education will also be providing support to young people wanting to run their
own smoothie bar, Richard Strudwick co-founder of Xing commented, “We believe in
creating opportunities for young people to realise their own brilliance. Xing Education
gives students opportunity to run their own business while still at school or college,
teaming up with Live UnLtd and InspirEngage is all about leveraging the strengths we
all have. We are stronger working together and offer better support to more students
– what’s not to like?”
Teams from Live UnLtd and InspirEngage are touring schools across the UK to
deliver InspirEngage Bootcamps, giving young people who have signed up, the
practical support to launch their social enterprise with the deadline for entries
Monday 10th December. Winners will be announced in January 2013. For more
information visit www.liveunltd.com/cyc
-ENDSFor media enquiries, contact the UnLtd Communications team on 0207 566 1137 or email
comms@unltd.org.uk
Notes to Editors
What is a social venture?
A social venture is a business that trades to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life
chances or the environment. They make and do things that earn money and make profits like any
business, but what is different is what they do with that profit, including:

Working to make a bigger difference

Reinvesting the profits they make to do more good
About UnLtd
UnLtd is here for social entrepreneurs. We are the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in
the UK and offers the largest such network in the world. UnLtd resources up to 1,000 individuals each
year through our Awards programmes.
UnLtd operates a unique model by investing directly in individuals and offering a complete package of
support; our Awards include advice, networking, mentoring and practical support as well as funding from
£500 to £15,000.
UnLtd enables individuals from age 11 upwards to start and run ventures with the aim of creating social
impact on a local, regional or national level. We conduct research to identify the impacts created by
social entrepreneurs and to learn how best to support them to succeed.
UnLtd is also committed to developing an ecosystem of support to make it easier for new social
entrepreneurs to find the help they need. We actively help other agencies to develop social entrepreneur
support services.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Harding and Harding 2008) found that there were 1.7m people
leading social organisations in the UK, 238,000 trying to start one, and that 35% of all early stage
entrepreneurs were starting with social ventures.
For more information about the support offered by UnLtd, please visit: www.UnLtd.org.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/unltd
Facebook: www.facebook.com/unltd
About InspirEngage International
InspirEngage International is one of the world’s leading organisations in skills training and youth
engagement with the central aim of supporting students to develop Life Skills to feel more confident,
work-ready and enterprising.
Established in 2009 they have grown a portfolio across 100+ countries and reached over 1 million
people in only 3 years.
InspirEngage visit schools, colleges and universities nation-wide delivering innovative InspirEngage
Skills Bootcamps and Enterprise days that provoke thought and equip young people with the skills for
real life.
Over the past 14 years in the youth sector, they’ve worked with varied groups from homeless young
people, offenders to asylum seekers.
InspirEngage’s latest focus is on girls and women, raising aspirations and skills of women in the
business world through the launch of Startup En Stiletto!
Dr. Eric Chivian, Nobel Peace Prize Winner said “InspirEngage International is training young people
how best to tackle the leading social justice and culturally dividing challenges of our time.”
“InspirEngage inspired me in different ways, this has changed my thought of my future job and it has
given me more faith about my future.” Kevin Lai, year 9
About Xing Education
Xing Education helps to create real student-run businesses, delivering exceptional enterprise and
employment skills. The students run a commercial business, they get paid and the school or college
keep all the profits. It’s that simple.
We run a commercial smoothie company and as part of our social aims we use our expertise to help
students to set up their own smoothie-bars in school or college. We provide all of the training, all the
equipment and all the start-up stock needed and all of our existing school bars make a profit.
Xing Education provides the platform for much needed practical business experience, employment
skills, confidence and a spotlight on enterprise and achievement. It’s the students that create the
amazing results...
''We've learnt to make decisions between ourselves. We don't wait for teachers to tell us what to do,
we're the management.'' Rob, aged 15.