27 April 2006

Enterprise Gym Awards

Photo opportunity
7.15 pm, Apex Hotel, Dundee, Thursday April 27th.

The first annual Enterprise Gym award ceremony and dinner takes place in the Apex Hotel in Dundee on Thursday April 27th, marking the end of the first year of an innovative and highly successful programme at the University of Dundee.

University rector Lorraine Kelly will present some of the awards to students who have flexed their business muscles in the Enterprise Gym.

The E-Gym was launched by the University’s Centre for Enterprise Management last year and has proved an instant hit both with students and local businesses.

The E-Gym aims to improve the self-reliance and employability of students by promoting an awareness of business enterprise and helping them to build their entrepreneurial skills.

130 students signed up to the E-Gym in the space of its first few weeks and local businesses including James Keiller Estates, Texol, Insights, Ross & Bonnyman, LI Components, MDM Creative Services and the Royal Bank of Scotland have shown strong support for the project.

Local business support agencies including Business Gateway and PSYBT also gave their assistance to the project.

"We have had a very strong first year and are delighted to cap it with our first annual awards ceremony and dinner," said Ken Edward, of the Centre for Enterprise Management.

"The E-Gym aims to give students the business skills to go with the academic knowledge they have gained at the University. It has been great to see local business get involved to such a large extent and help us meet our objectives, both through helping us with funding and providing the time of staff to help `coach’ the students in key business skills."

"This is a project which has real benefits for the University, students and business."

AWARD WINNERS

The Enterprise Gym Champion
David Tonery (Oxy-gen Combustion Ltd) graduated from the University last year with a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and since then has been very active developing his business idea, based on his design for a new environmentally-friendly component for the internal combustion engine. He now has a registered Private Ltd Company structure and has won support from Scottish Enterprise Tayside, being judged as one of their 'High Growth Companies'. David has also just recently won financial support from PSYBT in Dundee. Although David now works in London, he travels up to Dundee regularly to drive forward his business plan. His registered office is in Dundee and the mainstay of his business advice derives from Dundee. David has also negotiated an extension to his stay in the University’s Greenhouse. David is also in the unusual position of acting as a Half-time Coach whilst still being a member of the Gym.