Jamescape Sponsors the University of Liverpool EQ+ Awards 2025

5/8/2025

Zack and James stood together in front of a EQ+ Awards banner with their arms around each other’s shoulders, smiling towards the camera.

What is EQ+?

The EQ+ offer at the University, ran by the Careers & Employability Team, aims to support students from marginalised backgrounds with opportunities to develop their skills and gain employment. Last year, the EQ+ Awards were introduced as part of this offer to celebrate the fantastic EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) work from staff, students, and alumni across the University community.

Our history with EQ+

Around this time last year we attended the inaugural EQ+ Awards at the University of Liverpool, representing both Jamescape and myself as a nominee in several categories. Amongst the fantastic and well-deserved wins that night, Jamescape took home the Exceptional Entrepreneur award in recognition of our efforts to embed EDI into our work and operations through the UK government’s Disability Confident scheme.

Now, one year on, Jamescape is developing an EDI software solution to support other SMEs with their inclusivity journeys. The internal EDI work we did back in 2023, capped off by this award, was instrumental in this current project that has potential to create significant impact for disabled people across the UK.

Getting involved with EQ+ 2025

So, when the EQ+ team at the University asked us to sponsor this year’s awards, we were keen to support the awards and the wider EQ+ offer.

James (our Chief Executive) sat on the scoring panel alongside representatives from other local inclusive organisation, offering input on the nominations and who was shortlisted as the winners. As sponsors, James and I attended the awards event last week where James had the honour of presenting the Exceptional Entrepreneur to Samawer Sohail Cheema Rehman, who found a lack of halal food options on campus and partnered with local suppliers to address this gap, which demonstrated a strong entrepreneurial drive to solve an EDI-related problem. We’re excited to follow Samaer’s journey as he’s recently launched two ventures!

Beyond the awards, we’re proud to become an EQ+ employer partner, attending annual steering groups and hosting EQ+ student visits to our office. We’re particularly excited to be working with the Careers team on the pilot of their new EQ+ Internship initiative, offering a funded 80-hour internship to an EQ+ student at a local inclusive workplace. Through this scheme, we’ve very recently hired a student to work with us to produce content for our upcoming EDI software platform!

We hope this is the beginning of a successful partnership with the University and a successful continuation of a scheme that empowers marginalised students to thrive. As young, disabled business leaders who recently graduated from the University, it’s exciting to be working with the Careers team on this.

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees of the EQ+ Awards 2025!