Southern Enterprise Awards 2021

96 | Southern Enterprise Awards 2021 Aug21548 Cognitive Paths was founded to support young people’s educational attainment and promote the entry of minority- led enterprises into the mainstream of economic activity. Recognised in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2021 for its excellence, Cognitive Paths aims to provide an educational framework for all young people aged 8 to 16 from all backgrounds. Founded in 2016 by Sibusiso Tshabalala, Cognitive Paths combined its team members’ lived experience, cultural heritages, and theoretical knowledge to aid in the formation of the company. The mission was to create an umbrella organisation that supports informal businesses that mainly operate locally and are disengaged from mainstream economic activities. Cognitive Paths helps aspiring enterprises to manage the burden, costs and mental capacity required to grow and sustain their business venture. As a social enterprise its primary purpose is to deliver social, cultural, and economic benefits to society. They do this by providing cross-sector market-based solutions that address a wide range of systematic issues in education, creative media, sports, procurement and neighbourhood planning. As a cross-sector organisation, Cognitive Paths’ requires several outlets to strategically address levels of inequality experienced by young people and businesses. For example, school exclusion rates nationwide for black Caribbean students are 10.4%, compared with 6% of white British students. Additionally the Creative Industries Report analysed that the number of jobs in the creative economy held by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic is 12.5% but should be at least 17.8% if the sector is to reflect the population at large. Disappointingly, Bristol has less than the 10 commercially engaged creative agencies. Furthermore, the city’s corporate supply-chain has less than 5% minority businesses winning contracts. Sibusiso believes that everyone can achieve their form of excellence. With his passion for broad knowledge-sharing and 10 years’ experience in marketing, Sibusiso has engaged with different spheres of leadership from community, city, regional to international levels involving government, private and the voluntary sector. Best Regional Business Development & Employment Support Social Enterprise - Southwest Cognitive Paths’ ambition is to unleash a wave of innovation, entrepreneurship and representative media that can deliver scalable solutions to pressing local and regional challenges. It is a naturally collaborative organisation, and its ability to build and maintain cross-sector relationships enabled the organisation to broker relationships with speed and trust. This approach helps young people and businesses to work into a broader ecosystem and reduce silos. By designing integrated frameworks instead of silo-based programmes, Cognitive Paths encourages meaningful participation of underrepresented groups in education and business, enabling them to unlock and ultimately embrace their full potential within mainstream economic activities. To demonstrate our commitment to supporting young people we have hosted 102 work placement students and delivered 43 football sessions. By 2020 Cognitive Paths had developed two scalable projects. The impact of Covid-19 and the growing demand for our service meant we had to scale some of the projects to independent social enterprises so that they could stand alone. Establishing these spin-outs has enabled Freestyle Bristol and One Bristol Curriculum to self-define and innovate their own approaches. Cognitive Paths’ approach to representation is the foundation of all its programs. To support young people to transition from community, schools and then university requires collaborative working and empathy. Our efforts to collaborate with schools, colleges, universities enable us to continue providing meaningful student placements and additional opportunities to recruit new team members. Our work to increase representation in the creative sector is showcased through our annual publication of Black History Month Magazine sixth edition in October 2021. The magazine is produced to highlight the achievements and aspirations faced by people from the Black African and Caribbean communities. Additionally, Cognitive Paths will be publicising its 2016-2021 Impact Report to highlight its past accomplishments and future aspirations. Company Name: Cognitive Paths Contact Name: Sibusiso Tshabalala Web Address: https://cognitivepaths.co.uk/ Contact Email: hello@cognitivepaths.co.uk Cognitive Paths