New Small Business Charter Award for Portsmouth Business School

The University of Portsmouth Business School has retained its Small Business Charter Award in recognition of its work to support students, small businesses and the local economy.

Portsmouth Business SchoolhasheldtheSmall Business Charter (SBC) accreditation status since 2015 and is one of only 33 Business Schools in the UK and Ireland.

Portsmouth is one of four business schools to have successfully completed their reassessment through the SBC’s virtual assessment process.Itwillnowhold theSBCAwardfora further five years.

The assessors were impressed by the environment created and the range of opportunities to stimulate and support student engagement with the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) community.

These include placements and consultancy projects offered through the Business and Law Clinics.

The panel regarded Portsmouth Business School as a champion of engagement with SMEs.

Professor Jeremy Howells, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, said: ‘This award recognises the wellestablished and beneficial collaboration between the Business School and the local business community.

‘Our unique position as a large institution with expertise in research, knowledge services and education, means we are well-placed to champion and provide ongoing support for small businesses and start-ups.

‘This will be particularly important to help drive sustained economic growth in our region as we respond to the economic impact of COVID-19.’

Anne Kiem OBE, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and Chief Executive of the Chartered Association of Business Schools, said: ‘We are delighted these business schools have again demonstrated the incredibly valuable contributions they make to small businesses and their local economies.

‘The work that they do to help businesses grow and to support students into entrepreneurship has lasting impacts in their regional economies.

‘Having business schools like these on the doorstep of local businesses is fantastic for our recovery, regionally and nationally.

‘Following the announcement that the nationwide Help to Grow: Management programme will be delivered through business schools accredited by the Small Business Charter, we are pleased that these four business schools will continue to be a part of the SBC.’

Director of Business Development at the University of Portsmouth, Peter Hooley, said: ‘At Portsmouth we take an outside-in approach to business problems, utilising our students to help identify, advise on and solve genuine business problems.

‘This award recognises the very real work being undertaken by University researchers, entrepreneurs, students and staff to help grow the substantial contribution SMEs make to UK PLC.’

University Small Business Manager, Pat Smith said: ‘I’m absolutely thrilled that Portsmouth Business School has achieved this award.

‘For the past five years, I have been actively engaged with our local small businesses and key stakeholders, some of whom were kind enough to speak with the assessors.

‘Forging such relationships directly benefits our students and colleagues, an example being our Entrepreneurs in Residence programme, where we can call upon 22 entrepreneurs to support with mentoring, curriculum development or to be a guest speaker.’

To find out more about working with Portsmouth Business School, please contact pete.hooley@port. ac.uk