I.C.E. ACADEMY is a personal development programme with a difference. The Ben & Jerry’s Ice Academy is for you if you are a refugee and you are exploring whether starting a small business in the UK is the right thing for you. I.C.E. ACADEMY runs from late May to Early September

1. Ben and Jerry weren’t exactly your archetypal business
types when they met in 7th grade gym class! But over the
years the two founders built Ben & Jerry’s up to be a global
ice cream company with a focus on making the chunkiest
Fairtrade ice cream, as well as standing up for social justice,
fairness, and equality. We call this our linked prosperity
business model, through which everyone connected to our
business should benefit. As an aspiring activist company,
we hope we can use our business to provide a platform for
others to begin their own journey in the world of business.
The Ben & Jerry’s I.C.E. ACADEMY aims to do exactly that
for entrepreneurial refugees in the UK.
We know that many refugees in the UK think of
entrepreneurship as a path to success. That is why Ben &
Jerry’s has teamed up with The Entrepreneurial Refugee
Network (TERN – www.weareTERN.org) to develop the
I.C.E. ACADEMY, a personal development programme with a
difference. The Ben & Jerry’s Ice Academy is for you if you
are a refugee and you are exploring whether starting a small
business in the UK is the right thing for you.
TERN coaches you in market
research. You carry out your
customer and competitor
research and gain feedback.
Take your completed research into
a TERN workshop and refine your
business idea with the new
insights.
Develop your minimum viable
product and make it ready to test.
TERN organises a workshop
with test customers. Collect
their feedback to learn strengths
and weaknesses of the idea.
The collected feedback is used in
a TERN workshop to refine your
business idea further.
In a TERN workshop, develop
your own business idea
with input from experienced
entrepreneurs.
 Learn and get inspired by Ben & Jerry’s
way of doing value-led business
 Be part of a great team and work with a
successful, global brand.
 Receive training to become an
excellent salesperson.
 Gain practical experience of operating
a small business selling Ben & Jerry’s
products directly to customers.
 Observe customer behavior first hand.
During a two day workshop, you
will learn the basics of sell in and
maintain a Ben & Jerry’s
ice cream business.
In weekly sessions, you will discuss
lessons learned with your fellow
participants and the TERN team to
get the most out of your learning
and job experience.
In a final workshop, you are
informed about your options for
continued support after the
programme ends.
By this point you will have a well
researched business idea and
can enter the TERN business
incubator.
• You are above 18 years old
• You have refugee status in the UK &
the right to work and can provide
relevant documentation
• You speak a good level of English
(B1 Level equivalent)
• You live within 50 miles of central London
• You are available to work at least 16 hours per
week, including weekends, from May 25th of
May till the first week of September.
• Available to join up to eight 2-day training
sessions in central London
• Available for regular communication with the
trainers running the programme
• On workdays, you are willing to travel to a
workplace outside London via train
• We strongly encourage women to participate.
• I.C.E. Academy is ideal for you if you are currently
exploring starting your own small or medium sized
food, catering or retail business in the UK
• The work experience and the business training are
useful to anyone interested in exploring
entrepreneurship, but particularly relevant if you are
interested in starting a street food business
• The programme will be particularly useful for you if
you like the idea of interacting with people from
different backgrounds, and if you like the idea of
interacting regularly and directly with customers
• Participants will be employed through McCurrachs,
Unilever’s field sales partner in the UK and will be paid
at London Living Wage
• Finalists will have to do a DBS check
(https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-
check/overview) as the work experience as an ice
cream vendor involves interactions with minors.
Between end of May and early September, you will be employed by a Ben
& Jerry’s ice cream vendor business in an attraction park.
In parallel to working with Ben & Jerry’s, you will take part
in the TERN Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Training Programme:
 Develop and refine your business skills
 Develop your own unique business idea
 At the end of I.C.E. Academy, meet with a mentor to either:
 Decide to create a business & join TERN’s Incubator
 or decide to get job coaching to improve your access to employment
runs from late May to late September
and has two parallel parts:
In parallel, you will receive
training in entrepreneurship: