Enactus National Final success for Team Birmingham

The Enactus society at the University of Birmingham are full of smiles and they have every reason following their recent success in the Enactus competition.  

This week, they were invited to present at the Enactus National Finals at ExCeL London. They had already come out on top at the regional finals after showcasing two projects - a volunteer project teaching school children to code as well as a music project tackling loneliness within the elderly community in Selly Oak.

The University of Edinburgh were crowned eventual winners and they will now represent the UK in the Enactus World Cup in California in October 2018. The University of Birmingham can hold their heads high after going so far in the competition and creating big things in such a short space of time.

We caught up with Katie Jones and the Enactus Team to get their reaction.....

Enactus is a global organisation who celebrate the power of entrepreneurial action. Teams all over the world work on projects tackling social issues and helping communities for the greater good. To showcase these achievements, Enactus run a global competition and give teams the chance to feedback their projects by presenting to a panel of industry experts.

"Starting from scratch with projects which we would eventually have to present at the regionals and then the nationals was a little daunting when we first ran our meetings in September and October to the new members of the society. But just five months later we had our first ever implemented project, CodeWrite, and another project idea in the pipeline to present to the judges at the regional competition. The project, CodeWrite, is our most successful project to date and involves students volunteering to teach pupils how to code, addressing the technology skills gap which is becoming ever more prominent in the UK. 

Our other project idea is centred around the elderly community in Selly Oak and aims to tackle loneliness with music- which would be delivered by some of the University's music societies to care homes. The judges at the regional competition were impressed by these and this was really gratifying to see, as we knew that they were all successful figures in the business world. 

Shortly after our presentation we received the wonderful news that we were through to the national competition in London ExCel to compete with the other universities across the UK. At the nationals, our judging panel again expressed how impressed they were with our team, with particular interest in CodeWrite and the future it would have. Although we did not win the National Competition, we had still achieved a great deal for such a new team and all of us are incredibly excited with what the future will hold for UoB's Enactus team"

Team Leader Award

"To add to this, our project leader, Kathryn Rew, won the best team leader award- something which we are all really proud of, considering how strong the competition was for this. We came away feeling inspired by the lovely praise we received and the amazing work which other teams had achieved throughout the year. This will definitely fuel us for the year ahead and we can't wait to get started again!"

Enactus World Cup

The University of Edinburgh will be representing the UK at the next Enactus World Cup in California so we wish them all the very best of luck. The World Cup is a fantastic place to present - if you are fortunate enough to attend then expect a unique carnival atmosphere which has to be seen to be truly understood, a lot of music, incredible support for all of the teams and most importantly a showcase of truly remarkable projects taking place across the globe.

Get involved

Enactus Birmingham are always looking for members so if you have the passion to make a difference and would like to get involved, then please contact them via the Guild of Students website.

You can find more information about Enactus on the main Enactus website

Thank you to Katie Jones and Enactus Birmingham for sharing their story.
Additional material written by Bob Lee, Careers Network, B-Enterprising Team.