In March 2014, Five Lamps delivered a MyBnk Enterprise-in-a-Box session at St Michael’s RC School in Billingham
27 Year 10 Business BTEC students took up the challenge and aimed to make as much money as possible over lent so that they could send the 70% of their profits to CAFOD (The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development).
During the 3 week project, the group split into 5 teams each choosing a product to sell. They then took part in a number of expert workshops delivered by Jenny Donaldson, Five Lamps’ MyBnk Project Officer.
The interactive workshops introduced the students to the concept of social enterprise, including writing a business plan, budgeting and marketing before selling their products.
Nathan Small, 15 said
“It was a fantastic experience I really enjoyed. I like what Mybnk are doing and it is a great idea, I would definitely like to do it again”
The products chosen by the groups all had an exclusive ethical edge exclusively sourced by MyBnk and included Seedboms®, Visionary Soap® and Divine Chocolate®. All items are ethical and promote fair trade as well as helping prevent pollution to the environment, raising awareness for valuable causes.
The teams had plenty of routes to market with Mother’s day, Easter and other events going on in the school. Some teams even worked together to offer gift packs and made more profits by offering customers more for their money. The main customers were teachers, parents and students.
The project was a great success, with the 5 teams generating a total revenue of £324.10, enabling them to make a donation of £234.30 to CAFOD
Karen Jackson, Head of Business and ICT at St Michael’s RC School said
“Loved it! I think that it has been a super opportunity for BTEC group. Excellent introduction to social enterprise, simple products to sell, easy means of getting more stock in manageable quantities. Jenny has been very helpful, enthusiastic and professional”
Naomi Ramsay, 14 commented
“I think this was really good if you want to start your own business off one day”