FLUX 2011 | Win £500! | The largest student enterprise and employability competition in the UK | FLUX500.com | Formerly Yomping The Nations

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FLUX 2010 - over 200 winners!

Top student entrepreneurs from 33 UK universities attended an intensely competitive final of Flux 500 - a business challenge created and run by Working Knowledge. See some video highlights here.

Hosted by Nottingham Trent University, Flux 500 is now the largest inter-university enterprise competition in UK.

As part of the fast-paced, two-day competition, teams of six students were challenged to create a new business division for Remploy, the national provider of employment services and employment to people with barriers to work. Over 40 business experts, from companies such as event sponsors Experian, Backup Direct, KPMG, and a range of other large and small organisations were on hand to guide the students.

During the competition finals, the team had just five minutes to pitch their strategy to the business experts - who went from consultants in the day to 'dragons' in the evening - before facing rigorous questioning and receiving feedback.

After the preliminary heats, four teams from the University of Bedfordshire, University College Plymouth MarJon, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Bristol were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge.

With only 15 minutes to prepare, the teams then faced a tense press conference-style grilling from four of the toughest business experts. After all the votes were counted the University of Bedfordshire came out as Flux 2010 champions.

Bedfordshire team member Greg Dorban said: "Winning was a fantastic feeling! To come top out of over 30 leading universities is just unbelievable. Obviously we went there to win, but never expected it, especially after seeing and hearing our competition." Manjunath Basapoor another member of the team added: "I learnt some new skills and tools like XING, which are quite useful especially in preparing business plans. This win is a great credible addition to my CV, and this happened at the right time as I will be entering the job market after my MBA."

Flux 500 was developed and is run by The Working Knowledge Group, which bridges the gap between education and the workplace. This year's event was sponsored by Experian, Backup Direct, NCGE, The Greater Nottingham Partnership and the Nottinghamshire City & County Employment and Skills Board, with support from Experience Nottinghamshire.

Chris Hall, business manager at competition host, The Hive, said: "There were a lot of extremely dedicated people who made this a very exciting and engaging event, from the students, to the business experts and the Hive entrepreneurs who came along to help. It was very enjoyable and we had lots of positive comments about our newly refurbished Newton building where the event was held."

ENTERPRISE CHAMPIONS WORKSHOP 29TH - 30TH MARCH

The Working Knowledge Group will be hosting an Enterprise Champions Workshop alongside the student competition.
We have over 50 university enterprise champions coming with their teams to FLUX 2010, and with the addition of enterprise experts, there is a great opportunity to get involved, share thoughts and ideas and develop enterprise offerings.

Monday 29th March
An afternoon session for you to get to know one another through some speed networking followed by some hands-on activities.
In this session you will learn about the FLUX format and what's expected of the teams during the event. This will be followed by an introduction to a range of 'learning by doing' activities designed to stimulate entrepreneurship and enhance employability and enterprise skills.

Tuesday 30th March
This session includes workshops and presentations reflecting key issues in Enterprise Education for HE, followed by a plenary session, before you rejoin the teams for their final presentations.
The session consists of some short presentations followed by facilitated workshops and feedback with the whole group. Topics will cover:

Enterprise from the Employer Perspective
The Role of Social Networks and Social Media in Enterprise Education
The Changing face and role of Enterprise in HE

During all of the activities at FLUX 2010 we will be making full use of new media opportunities. That means that we will be capturing a lot of photos and video during activities and breaks. During the staff workshops, we will try and capture your thoughts so that we can produce workshop outputs that we can post on the web for other 'enterprise educators' to see and respond to.

The plenary will be an opportunity to pose questions - via video and audio postings - to the educators' community with a view to kick-starting dialogue and sharing good practice about the major issues that face the sector.

If you have entered a team for this year's competition, the Enterprise Champions Workshop is included in the Flux experience. If you would like to invite an extra delegate from your university or you have not entered a team but would still like to come to the Workshops and observe the Flux competition in action, then please contact us

PETER BAILEY,TELLS US HOW FLUX HELPED HIM TO WIN A WORK PLACEMENT

"Taking part in FLUX 2009 was a fantastic experience for me, without it I wouldn't be in the position I am today.

After attending a few assessment centres with large corporations I was unsure which direction to go in. However, by attending the recruitment sessions as part of FLUX I won my first work placement at Backup Direct. I think FLUX's biggest strength is recruitment, in particular that it's a two-way process. Recruiters are able to observe you in lots of different, challenging scenarios and as a potential employee, you are able to get to know the people you may be working for and talk to them one-to-one, in an informal setting.

I particularly liked the fact that it involved students from all over the country and that everyone taking part was so keen to get involved and learn more about the business world. The experts’ input was invaluable too, I found the ‘elevator pitch’ session especially inspiring. Also the Focus Group sessions, with a designated expert, were incredibly useful too."

UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER WIN FLUX 2009!

Flux 2009 was another hugely successful year for the national inter-university competition with 170 students taking part in the Grand Final. The University of Ulster triumphed, despite stiff competition from 29 other universities across the UK, to be crowned Winners of FLUX 2009 and to scoop the £3000 prize money.

Dr Cecilia Hegarty coordinator of the Ulster team said:

"The team worked tirelessly for two days on developing a social networking website with a difference. They concentrated on a not-for-profit business model which allowed travellers to backpack across the globe, receiving free accommodation in return for undertaking work tasks.The six final year students, Stella So, Leanne Leighton, Chris Halliday, Chris Cupples, Matthew Gray and Laura Tate demonstrated how they could apply their enterprising skills when exposed to the high pressure environment that is FLUX."

The team greatly valued the support given to them from some of the UK's top businessmen and women at FLUX and learnt a huge amount from pitching to 50 'dragons' and an audience of over 250 students and staff.