Laura Foster

Experience

• 

  NRG (Northern Recruitment Group)

  Jan 1998 - Jan 2000

  Contract Manager
• 

  Zenith People

  Jan 2000 - Jan 2005

  Contract Manager

  Involved in setting up this recruitment business from the very beginning, my role was varied. Primarily I was Contract Manager looking after several manufacturing clients across the North East, recruiting and managing their temporary staff. However, I also ran payroll and managed the day to day running of the office.

• 

  University of Sunderland

  Nov 2005 - now

  I manage the University's dedicated facility supporting the development and growth of student and graduate business via an ERDF funded project. The role involves managing day to day operations, including two direct reports, ensuring the pipeline of students and graduates is maintained as well as monitoring the progress of the start up businesses we are supporting. I am also responsible for ensuring we achieve project outputs and that we are fully compliant with our ERDF contract and guidance. We have developed several programmes which address different stages of development of business ideas. All courses are delivered by the core Enterprise team with guest speakers and specialist consultants delivering content:- Discover Enterprise aims to inspire students who may be thinking about starting a business with inspirational speakers from local business, ideas generation and business planning sessions as well as presentation skills. - Start up Skills is for Enterprise Place member who have registered or are about to register a business. The course covers all practical aspects of running a business including financial awareness, business planning, sales and marketing and legal issues.- Grow Your Business is a next stage course for Enterprise Place members and local SME's who are wanting to learn how to take their business to the next stage. We cover Sales and Marketing, trading Internationally and online, accessing finance as well as HR considerations when growing your team.The Enterprise Place team are also responsible for looking for new opportunities to embed enterprise into the curriculum, developing new and interesting ways for students and graduates to engage with enterprising activities to enhance their intrapreneurial and employability skills. Show less

  • Entrepreneurial Development Manager

    Nov 2022 - now

  • Internships and Enterprise Manager

    Oct 2018 - now

  • Enterprise Place Manager

    Oct 2015 - Oct 2018

  • Senior Project Administrator

    Nov 2005 - Oct 2015