Over the past few weeks our Services To Education Manager; Steph Moore together with her team, has successfully delivered three of our School Enterprise Challenge days. This was to approximately 200 students in the Somerset area ranging from Year 6 through to Year 8.
The challenge was to start up a company with the aim to secure investment to get off the ground and this was met with enthusiasm by the pupils involved.
Whilst setting up the company, the values and their specific job roles, pupils used this information to drive forward and influence the product design, company logo and marketing strategy. They then worked towards meeting the required goal at the end of the day by producing a prototype and then pitching their product in true “Dragons Den” style!
During the planning phase groups demonstrated creativity and the use of problem solving skills including using social media to market their product. As the challenge progressed, business planning and leadership skills were put to the test. Whilst the teams assembled prototypes teamwork become more cohesive and groups were secretly analysing other group’s plans, with the sole aim of winning the challenge!
Finally, it was time for the “Dragons Den style” pitches where the business mentors as part of Steph’s team took the role of “judges” and were met with a variety of individual styles and risk taking, including a sales pitch rap, a jingle and free gifts on day one of the sales! Some ingenious ideas came to life and it was wonderful to see pupils thinking outside the box whilst rising above and beyond the challenge.
