His Royal Highness the Duke of York visited London Metropolitan University on Wednesday 1 February to officially open the ‘Student Hatchery’.
Date: 02/02/2012
His Royal Highness the Duke of York visited London Metropolitan University on Wednesday 1 February to officially open the ‘Student Hatchery’ – the University’s successful business start-up programme.
The Duke spent the morning meeting student entrepreneurs before opening the facility in London Met’s Accelerator building in Shoreditch.
The Hatchery is one of the key components of London Met’s Student Enterprise Programme, giving entrepreneurial students the opportunity to start-up their own businesses.
Students are given intensive start-up training, mentoring and coaching, access to financial support and office space.
His Royal Highness said: “I have been truly impressed by what I have seen at London Met. It is very important that young people in the United Kingdom are given the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial ideas.
“The students I met today are incredibly talented, and will doubtless go far with their businesses with the support of the excellent team at London Met Student Enterprise.”
Uwe Dreissigacker is one of the graduates whose online invoicing business, Invoiceberry Limited, received help from Accelerator.
He said: “It was a pleasure meeting His Royal Highness Prince Andrew in the Student Enterprise Hatchery. I especially enjoyed giving him a short tour of Invoiceberry's simple online invoicing software.
“He made some valuable comments which will further improve the invoicing software as well as the business itself.”
For Matthew Connelly, Student Enterprise Development Manager at London Met, the visit by Prince Andrew reflects the excellent work taking place at Accelerator.
He said: “It was a great privilege to have His Royal Highness officially open the Hatchery. It is fantastic for London Met and the Accelerator team to get his recognition for our work in creating opportunities for London Met students and graduates.”
