 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
|
|
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
||||
Case study: Enterprise Activities
Aims and Objectives Company
School(s) To develop Enterprise skills of:
Time Invested by the Employer Financial Investment of £10,000 to sponsor the programme Mentors time Approx. 178 hours Organisational support Time as above, other resources include production and printing of programmes, certificates and other literature. Outline of Activity Undertaken Students are briefed in a session approximately 2 weeks before the event. A team role questionnaire is completed that then informs the team allocation. This is a whole year activity for up to 200 students. On the day students are given the following scenario: With a group of friends you have developed some garden play equipment which you have sold to family and friends. Most of the work involves the sale of standard designs from the product range, although the business will also produce customised products to order. Your fame has spread and now demand exceeds your ability to supply. You have learned that the potential market for play equipment is much wider than just private sales for domestic gardens. With expansion and new products, you could improve the profitability of the business significantly. You can see it’s time to move into serious production and get more money to move on to the next stage. You therefore seek the finance from your Bank Manager to go ahead. You are now looking for the finance to turn this part-time venture into your main income. You have secured £10,000 from friends and family to put into the business. As a Business, your aim is to convince financial backers to support you. You need to show that you have realistic ideas of your product, the market, costs involved, etc. Put together a presentation to impress your potential investors. You will need to include: Product design The beginning of the Event is a keynote talk by a Business Speaker on xxx. Students then divide into their teams and work through a student brief. Their task is to make an effective presentation, including written evidence of a business plan and marketing strategy. These should demonstrate their understanding of how to develop and market a product profitably and the team’s ability to communicate this effectively in 10 minutes to a panel of Judges. Each school has dedicated mentors from Newbury Building Society who work with them through the programme and at the inter-school final. In addition to this there are volunteer advisors from a number of businesses who provide specific support on finance, marketing and creativity. Students can book times with them to work through any aspect of the challenge. Each team is given a student brief to guide them through the challenge and keep to time. Team members take on roles such as Company Chairman, Finance Director, Creative Designer, Marketing Director, using the results of their team roles questionnaires to inform their choices. At the end of day 1, students present their work to a panel of Judges who choose a winning team from within the school. Mentors continue to work with the winning team in their adopted school, to support their preparation for the Grand Final. The winning team from each school take part in a Grand Final, normally held at Newbury Racecourse. They present to a panel of Judges who are local business leaders and eg, the Mayor, using PowerPoint to assist them. This is done in front of an invited audience of parents, teachers and volunteers. The Judges then interview the teams in private and examine their evidence in more detail before determining the overall winning team. Results of Evaluation to meet Aims and Objectives Analysis of evaluation responses is very positive. Examples of individual comments are given below: Comments back from students: “brilliant”, “I didn’t think I would learn so much”. Comments back from teachers: “I saw a student grow through this experience – I was amazed”, “great event”. Comments back from NBS: “All the mentors have given some really positive feedback and enjoyed being part of the event. It has really helped some with their personal development.” “For me personally it's great to be able to give some of my knowledge back to the school I actually attended.” Conclusions The event was well attended and students, schools and sponsors gave positive feedback. Future Plans The programme is being reviewed, with a consultation process taking place with students and teachers to identify a new product or other areas for improvement. Work is also taking place to develop the ability of the sponsors (Newbury Building Society) to capture the learning for its mentors, and therefore to target the volunteering opportunities within the workforce in a way that meets development needs and provides another method of learning. Visual evidence available: 
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
