How do we add value?
EiRs are frequently assigned to specific departments or schools within a university or college, often working independently and are unaware of each other's efforts even within the same institution. Whilst delivering specific interventions, they often feel isolated and lack the input and support that being part of a community offers.
CONNECT-ED helps by:
Peer to peer learning and support
Enabling peer to peer learning, and sharing of lived experience, through easy connection.
Access to resources
Access to a library of useful resources and high-quality upskilling and CPD material
Access to funding
Identifying and encouraging more funding into the sector (to fund more EiR roles and infrastructure and support individual business growth)
We also observe sectoral (eg colleges) and geographic gaps in provision and a general lack of diversity of role models in the population of EiRs with more, and more representative, role models and advisors needed in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and lived experience/social mobility. This lack of diversity is a barrier to inspiring more individuals to consider founding as a potential career path.
