ETEC Development Trust with Durham University
Researcher: Robert Peach
ETEC Development Trust, provided teaching and learning skills, but found itself struggling as the economic recession deepened and did finally have to close. A Durham researcher with extensive experience working in the Third Sector (Peach) provided an overview on current literature in the field, drawing out fund-raising issues, partnership building and business challenges which was presented to the organisation's management and trustees board, who commented that 'it may well have been the most productive and enlivened board meeting that they had attended' (Client Report). The benefit to the researcher, as a new recruit to academia, was the experience of bringing together academic review of literature and the practical implications for the organisation. With the demise of the organisation, the medium- to long-term benefits for the University have not been possible other than the closely experienced awareness of the volatility of the social enterprise 'ecology'. The other three vouchers have been used to complement the doctoral research in working with social enterprises that were exploring an expansion of their portfolio of activities into new social areas.
