Mr Seán Sherlock TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Jobs & Innovation has launched Menter Iontach Nua, an Irish-Welsh learning, networking and support initiative designed to improve the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial skills of social entrepreneurs at the Ryan Academy.

The key components of Menter Iontach Nua will be the delivery of a Masters degree in Management of Innovation in Social Enterprise and a comprehensive suite of networking, training and mentoring supports for social entrepreneurs, community development organisations and companies with a Corporate Social Responsibility remit.

Minister Sherlock welcomed the arrival of Menter Iontach Nua in the social enterprise landscape,

"A sustainable business model is key to the survival and development of social enterprises. The launch of the Menter Iontach Nua initiative today, designed to improve the leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial skills of those in social enterprises, will be of great assistance in helping to deliver on this objective."

Also speaking at the event was Mark Richardson, Welsh social entrepreneur, Director of Social Enterprise at Bangor University and Fellow of the Clore Social Leadership,

"I started my first social enterprise at the age of 21. Within 5 years its turnover had topped a million and we'd franchised to 10 cities around the UK, employing 200 homeless people every year. Another year later and the catalogue company went spectacularly bust and I was pretty well burnt out. And that's why we need a Masters in social enterprise. Most social entrepreneurs don't have any formal training in developing a business; they learn through their mistakes, which can be time-consuming, expensive and sometimes traumatic. And the knowledge and tools these social entrepreneurs will learn through this Masters programme will help to ensure they can maximise their organisation's social impact, and indeed their own."

"Our vision for Menter Iontach Nua is to transform the social enterprise sector; to create a step-change in ambition and ability; to inspire and equip social entrepreneurs to generate social impact at a scale way beyond anything they have been able to achieve so far. There are some fantastic social entrepreneurs in Ireland and Wales but most are operating unsustainably at a small, community level. Menter Iontach Nua will help them grow."

Sharon Vard, CEO and founder of Anam Cara, a parent and sibling bereavement support service, offered the Irish social entrepreneur's perspective,

"It is so encouraging to see DCU Ryan Academy taking a leadership role in training and developing people in the arena of Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise. The MIN programme will help develop our social entrepreneurs' skills and is going to play a huge part in the recovery of Ireland going forward."