Pearson Business School, the first higher education provider founded by a FTSE 100 company, is announcing the launch of an innovative business incubator partnership, with ed-tech start-up The Access Platform.
The Access Platform won a competitive tendering process and will now move into Pearson Business School’s state-of-the-art campus on High Holborn and mentor students on entrepreneurship. In return, the team will receive free rent and facilities.
Pearson judges picked The Access Platform because they are solving a problem that the students had direct experience of and therefore would be able to uniquely add value to the company throughout its development. They also felt that The Access Platform provided a unique opportunity for students to work with and observe a company at its product development stage, which offers an important contrast to the many existing industry partnerships with larger corporates that Pearson Business School currently holds.
It will also allow The Access Platform, an online student recruitment and outreach platform to connect university representatives with potential applicants via phone and video calls, to benefit from close proximity to its target users – students.
The partnership is one of the first examples of a higher education organisation collaborating with a real-life start-up and reflects Pearson Business School’s commitment to industry engagement.
George Olesen, CEO of The Access Platform, said that they are ‘thrilled’ to be Pearson Business School’s first business incubator.
“We look forward to kicking off our work here with a student hackathon focused on finding innovative solutions to higher education student recruitment,’ he said.
Pearson Business School, part of Pearson College London, has developed a new approach to education – with degrees designed, developed, and delivered in partnership with leading businesses and industry figures. This approach is aligned to the prevailing opinion of policy makers that employers and educators must work together to ensure that the UK’s higher education system is fit to meet the needs of the twenty first century.
Pearson Business School prides itself on doing education differently. We want to offer our students as much exposure as possible to real businesses and our partnership with The Access Platform will be central to this – Will Holt, Dean of Pearson Business School
Commenting on the new partnership Will Holt, Dean of Pearson Business School said:
“Pearson Business School prides itself on doing education differently. We want to offer our students as much exposure as possible to real businesses and our partnership with The Access Platform will be central to this. In return for our support in taking their business to the next level, The Access Platform will advise Pearson students on the world of work – providing unrivalled industry exposure.”