The Scottish Institute for Enterprise is funded by the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Enterprise to help students in Scotland develop enterprise skills, discover their entrepreneurial talent and start up their own ventures.
SIE’s range of activities are designed to have something for students at all levels, from those with no experience of enterprise at all to business-minded teams who are ready to launch.
SISA is a new awards programme that develops innovation skills in students and issues certificates for each stage completed. SIE is running the programme in partnership with four of Scotland’s Innovation Centres (Digital Health and Care Institute, CENSIS, The Datalab and the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre).
SISA provides an opportunity for students to:
- recognise the innovation skills they have developed within the curriculum (Workshop 1)
- build on these skills and apply them to societal challenges in multidisciplinary teams (Workshop 2)
- demonstrate an intent to innovate and take action (Workshop 3)
Dabin Ghazi, third year MA Finance student had the opportunity to take part in SISA’s workshop 2 recently, commenting “in February, I participated in the Level 2, national SISA workshop, which was hosted in Dundee by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). I found out about the SISA Award through the course, Working Together: Employability for Arts & Social Sciences ED3536, which is a SISA-accredited course. For me, the most enjoyable part of the workshop was the practical focus on the United Nations, 13th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Climate Action and innovating how to achieve it.
In the Level 2 workshop challenge, I worked in a multidisciplinary team, where we all had different views and a limited time to apply future thinking skills to address the 13th SDG. We also had the opportunity to pitch our ideas to some of the other teams. As I haven’t pitched anything in years, it was fun trying to sell and defend your ideas to others. The workshop definitely had an impact on my skills development, such as teamworking, decision making, creativity, public speaking, negotiation, and communication.
When it comes to employability, I feel that with my SISA Level 1 and 2 achievements, I can show prospective employers that I am constantly challenging myself, trying new things and learning valuable skills. Go on, challenge yourself, learn and, most importantly, meet great people!"
