University of Northampton Support For Business

The University of Northampton (UON) offers a wide range of business support services to their students and staff as well as to the Northamptonshire business community. They also support social enterprise on a national scale, through the University’s Inspire2Enterprise brand.

What can they provide?

The University of Northampton Business Support team provides a gateway to business support services available throughout the county.  They have a team of experienced, accredited advisers with customer-focussed support staff – providing information, advice and guidance to entrepreneurs and businesses at all stages of their development – from pre-start to scale-up.  The university’s aim is to help clients across Northamptonshire to start and grow their business with the right solutions to meet their needs.

Inspire2Enterprise – working with individuals and organisations across the UK to start, run, finance and grow social enterprises. They offer a variety of remote and 1-2-1 support options that can be tailored to your needs.

The team can also signpost you to other relevant services provided by the University of Northampton – some of which are detailed below.

The Changemaker Incubator – Supporting students, graduates and staff of the University of Northampton. Providing a full range of support, training, advice, and information services, including various schemes and routes for funding – for anyone who has or would like to set up a business or social enterprise or work as a freelancer or private practitioner.

Employer Engagement – Making full use of our student and graduate talent, our award-winning Changemaker Hub team will work with you to understand your business needs and how we can best meet them together.

Recruitment

The University of Northampton offers their students and graduates employment opportunities and the chance to gain experience within business – as well as helping businesses with their staffing needs.

Unitemps – Unitemps provides exciting work opportunities with leading businesses, including part time, graduate, internships and even permanent roles for students, graduates and the local community.

Providing a comprehensive temporary staffing service to businesses, the Unitemps team is committed to helping employers to find talented candidates who add value to their business.

Internships – Internships can help businesses solve some of their most challenging problems by accessing a skilled graduate workforce.

The ALPHAS project – They are working alongside the University of Bedfordshire and the Open University to deliver the European funded ALPHAS project – Accelerating Leadership and Productivity in High Ambition SMEs.  The project seeks to create links between universities and SMEs to solve business growth problems.

Santander internships are open to final year students and recent graduates.

Changemaker Internships are open to all students who have completed Changemaker Certificate Level 1 and offer work-based learning in charities, community organisations and social enterprises. These fully funded internships provide organisations with resource via our students’ expertise and skills. If you are interested in hosting a Changemaker Internship please email changemaker.incubator@northampton.ac.uk.

Industry Led Forums – The Northamptonshire Industry Led Forums are powered by the University of Northampton to support Northamptonshire businesses – across all sectors and sizes.  All forums are open to those in the field to share best practice and be updated on a wide range of topics and collaborate on issues. With forums from Logistics to Manufacturing and HR, Health & Safety and Wellbeing – there is something for all companies in the county. These forums are industry led and Chaired. For more details please email charlotte.patrick@northampton.ac.uk.

Please note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the forums are all currently online.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are a UK wide programme which enables businesses and organisations to benefit from the skills of academic staff and graduates.

KTPs are partly funded by the government and the cost of a KTP depends on the duration of your project and the size of your organisation. To find out more about how your organisation can benefit from a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Northampton please email charlotte.patrick@northampton.ac.uk.

Please refer to the University’s news article on a case study regarding KTPs at the University of Northampton.

Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) – The ISII supports social innovators through the delivery of academic research and consultancy services, including social impact measurement reporting. The Institute collaborates on multi-disciplinary research projects through internal partnerships with other research institutes and centres, as well through external partnerships with other universities and organisations.

Higher and Degree Apprenticeships – The University offers Higher and Degree apprenticeships, which are specifically designed with industry to respond to high level skills gaps, bringing together the very best in higher and vocational education. Their apprenticeships will enable your employees to study for a higher level qualification and gain professional recognition, while applying their learning to your real-world projects in the workplace. If you think degree apprenticeships can help shape the future of your business, please get in touch. Find out more.

Conferencing Facilities – The University has a range of spaces, including halls, lecture rooms and conferencing facilities, which are available to hire on a regular or one-off basis.

Get started

Visit the University of Northampton’s site here. Alternatively, you can view their page on the Support For Business page here.