is a Senior Lecturer in Business Management, Programme Leader and Centre Leader for Transnational Education Partners at the University of Sunderland. Linda worked in administration and senior management in the public and private sectors before a career change into FE and HE where she has gained over thirty years experience of teaching, supervision and research. Her research interests are in issues in widening participation, academic literacy and 2 learning and teaching. She is currently collaborating with colleagues on research into students' research skills.

The National Health Service (NHS) is the largest employer in the UK and has a diverse workforce with many different professional groups. This can make introducing a planned programme of change a complex and difficult task. Examines the process in the shape of Investors in People (IIP) within a public sector context. The findings come from a case study of a successful IIP project in a combined acute and community trust hospital. Drawing largely on direct experience of managing an IIP project, interview, survey and documentary evidence, the paper concludes by exploring the question of whether the IIP standard can be used as a tool for managing change and if it is sophisticated enough to reach a diverse workforce.

This paper explores whether the business plan competition (BPC), as a classically causational mechanism for extracurricular entrepreneurship education, can facilitate the development of the means that underpin an effectual approach to new venture creation. In-depth, open-ended qualitative interviews were conducted with participants in a regional university-based extracurricular BPC before, immediately after and six months after the competition. The BPC was found to facilitate the means that could be used to adopt an effectual approach. The competition afforded valuable networking opportunities and collaborative contacts with regard to ‘who they know’; and it enhanced ‘what they know’ through enabling the acquisition, development and application of key competencies. Participants were able to gain and project a confident sense of ‘who they are’ in terms of their venture, changing their perception of the venture from a student project to a credible and viable business prospect. There were strong indications that these acquired means endured in the six months following participation. The implication is that education in which a business plan is dominant need not automatically impede the promotion of an effectual approach.

Business planning competitions [BPCs] are a commonly offered yet under-examined extracurricular activity. Given the extent of sceptical comment about business planning, this paper offers what the authors believe is a much-needed critical discussion of the assumptions that underpin the provision of such competitions. In doing so it is suggested that these competitions, being based on business plans, could be limiting the entrepreneurial activity they seek to stimulate. As a result it could be said that BPCs are in a state of flux and require an evolved approach emphasizing implementation rather than planning for implementation. The issues highlighted set the scene for further critical questioning of the competition agenda and expected to be of value to those designing and offering competitions as part of their extra-curricular entrepreneurship education portfolio.

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