A group of business management and entrepreneurship students have been recognised and awarded for their research work into social enterprise.

Tim Norris of West Sussex, Josh Brown from Wirral, Tom Howarth from Accrington and Raul Salazar from El Salvador have been presented with their awards from the Institute of Leadership.

All four students were involved in researching a particular social enterprise of their choosing in order to analyse the business model and produce a report along with recommendations.

Connie Hancock, programme leader for business management and entrepreneurship, praised the students for their achievement.

She said: “The students demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the social enterprise sector, which forms a key component of their first year studies. The sector is outperforming many SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) in terms of growth and innovation, and thereby provides a rich source of examples of entrepreneurial endeavour. This Institute of Leadership and Management award demonstrates the outstanding quality of the work produced by these students.”

Tom Howarth, awardee and Vice-President of Chester Endeavour, the Student Enterprise Society, said: “It was the passion and purpose of the people involved in the social enterprise that really struck me. With their emphasis on securing social objectives these firms face the same challenges as any other business – finance, governance and personnel.”