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Northumbria students and graduates smash Startup Awards 2021
Students and graduates from Northumbria University were among more than 40 new business founders to have their talents showcased during a prestigious online Startup Awards North East.
The Awards provided an opportunity for new business owners to pitch for support and build their professional networks, whether they were at the starting-up, skilling-up or scaling-up stage with their businesses. Those involved spoke passionately about their entrepreneurial ambitions to audiences made up of more than 300 members of the North East business community and bid for their chance to win both Social Impact and High Growth awards.
Second year Fashion Design student Amy Clunes was one of seven finalists from Northumbria and was selected as joint winner of the Social Impact Award after she took part in the SkillUP day. The 20-year-old has been working with Northumbria’s Student and Graduate Enterprise team as part of the placement year offered on her course. She has shown real promise while working to develop her fledgling fashion and accessories brand, Whozamy.
Amy Clunes WhozAmy
Amy explained: “The placement year is a real bonus on the course because it gives students like me the chance to link up with a business and spend time in the world of work. But I knew my end goal would be self-employment and working for myself, so I chose to spend my time on placement with the enterprise team.”
With support from the Northumbria enterprise team and introductions to organisations like FIRST, Amy has attended meetings, training sessions and webinars which have helped her build vital skills such as book keeping, website building and marketing.
She added: “I’m doing a free Sage accounting course at the moment with FIRST and working towards launching my own website. The support I’ve had has been amazing and I’m really excited to see what the future holds.”
Amy was inspired to start her own business after friends commented on her hand-made earrings and she went on to sell hundreds of face masks online at the height of the pandemic. Her goal is to produce her own clothing using sustainably sourced fabrics which are less harmful to the environment. She also plans to make her designs size inclusive by creating them in sizes 6 to 22.
Amy and the other winners from Northumbria are part of the European funded Northumbria Enterprise and Business Support (NEBS2) project. This specialist scheme brings in professional mentors to support prospective entrepreneurs as part of an end-to-end business start-up support service.