THERE has never been a better opportunity for social enterprise to thrive and make a real impact in the communities they serve, new students at the regional School for Social Entrepreneurs at the Eastern Enterprise Hub have been told.

Alistair Wilson, chief executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, of which the Ipswich school is a franchise, delivered the message at a meeting to welcome the group of 18 new students, the second cohort to be based at the hub.

He said: “The distance this Suffolk school has travelled in just one year, in setting up one of the most innovative School for Social Entrepreneur’s franchises in the country has been highly impressive.

“The quality of the social enterprise businesses represented by this new intake of students is very high – I’m sure we are looking at some pretty big social enterprises that will not just have a social and economic impact here in Suffolk but regionally and nationally.”

The 18 students will follow a year long action learning programme to help them shape their businesses. They will benefit from tuition and guidance from established entrepreneurs and business leaders and specialists in many business disciplines such as marketing, finance and HR.

he would-be social entrepreneurs are also set to benefit from the experiences of the 2010 students, some of whom, such as Jo Douglas of Allied Health Professionals and Nicola Bradford of Lime Skills have already established successful social enterprise businesses in the high-growth personal care sector.

Also, joining the students for their first session was Matthew Cole of law firm Prettys which sponsors of the Suffolk School for Social Entrepreneurs.

After meeting all the new students and hearing their business plans, he said: “I’m really excited to meet these exceptional people and really impressed with the vision they all have for their businesses. At Prettys we are convinced of the value of the fast growing social enterprise sector and really want to play our part to see it take hold in Suffolk and throughout the east.”