Ethical Pioneers: an interactive masterclass for the new entrepreneur

24 November – 5 December, 2008
(Two week course only)

15% summer discount for applications made before 31st July 2008

Learn from leaders in the field, build your networks and develop essential skills to start your enterprise and help it thrive.

At this time of great change, how do we create organisations and businesses that engage with sustainability and ethics? This is a unique opportunity to explore these questions and develop your business plan or strategy. This highly participative and inquiry led course will be a real investment in you as an ethical pioneer.

This course brings together insights and approaches to ethical enterprise from the mainstream to the radical – within the unique engaged learning environment of Schumacher College. Previous participants have gone on to develop projects that build bridges between formal institutions and grassroots communities in dynamic and productive ways. Others have used the course to deepen their skills and confidence as leaders for change.

… a safe & supportive environment to explore yourself and analyse your key qualities. This led to a solid confirmation of personal leadership skills. To launch yourself out there, you first have to know yourself and be comfortable with that, and the course facilitated that beautifully.

Our contributors offer insights from personal experience in the charity sector, grass roots projects, corporate finance, social entrepreneurship and design innovation. All bring experience of what it takes to create and maintain a values-led organisation.

… a kick start at the perfect time! Excellent first hand advice from those entrepreneurs who had ‘been there’ yet were still passionate about the cause and their business inspired huge confidence to ‘just do it’!!

The design of the two-week course allows for sessions to be offered in response to participants’ needs and their particular interests. This course balances content with coaching, peer networking and time to ‘workshop’ your idea.

Through the course you will be able to:

This course is designed for existing and aspiring ethical entrepreneurs who are developing a project and want to move their vision forward. You may be experienced in mainstream business and wish to move into the world of sustainability, or your experience may lie in the world of activism or education and wish to set up a successful new enterprise. Projects may include small to medium sized businesses; educational establishments; charities, organisations and networks.

…Drawing a pioneering plan with all the details, business, environment impact, social impact etc was an amazing experience.

Facilitator and coaches

Toni Spencer (Facilitator and Programme Developer at Schumacher College), Karen Blincoe (Founder of ICIS and Director of Schumacher College) and Chris Nicholls (Ashridge Consulting).

Read more about how this course, and the related Certificate in Education, were developed.

Contributors to the 2007 course

Guy Watson is founder of Riverford Farm, one of the largest organic vegetable farms in the UK.
Antony Turner is founder and Managing Director of CarbonSense, a consultancy which works with businesses.
Ian Sharp is an account manager at Triodos Bank.
Tim 'Mac' Macartney is the CEO of Embercombe, a social enterprise that seeks to ‘inspire committed action towards a truly sustainable world’.
Jonathan Robinson is a founder and director of The Hub. The Hub has borrowed from the best of a members club, a business incubator, an innovation agency and a think-tank to create a very different kind of institution.
Galahad JD Clark A seventh generation shoe maker runs Terra Plana at the cutting edge of ethical fashion and retail with projects such as Worn Again 99% recycled shoes and accessories.
Emma Jackson works with Catalyst Collective (a workers co-op that helps new worker and housing co-ops register and set up, and runs the legal registration process for housing co-ops on behalf of Radical Routes.

Course Fees

Fees are £1,300 including accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.

15% summer discount for applications made before 31st July 2008

How to make an application – click here

For further information about Schumacher College please see About the College

New feature – reserve your place now

To provisionally reserve a place for 5 days, email us your contact details and the name of the course admin@schumachercollege.org.uk

We will hold the place for five working days for reservations – three weeks before a course or earlier. After five days we will automatically offer your place to someone else if we have not received your application.

Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.