Thornaby Academy students have become social entrepreneurs thanks to a unique ‘Enterprise-in-a-Box’ project, delivered by MyBnk.
MyBnk is an education charity which helps 11 to 25 year olds manage their money effectively and make enterprising choices. Five Lamps are now delivering their programmes across the Tees Valley.
Teacher of Business and Enterprise, Nina Geragusian saw an opportunity to engage with MyBnk’s Enterprise Educational programmes for her GSCE Business Studies Class in June 2012.
Enterprise-in-a-Box is an all-inclusive social enterprise start up toolkit for young people. The challenge provides them with the tools to take their first steps as social entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to make a profit as well as make a difference to the world around them.
The challenge takes them through the stages of planning an enterprise – including market research, target audience, selling and pricing. The practical experience of actually running their social enterprise provides them with skills such as planning ahead, customer service and presentation, team working, cash flow monitoring and evaluating their experiences.
Throughout the session, students were introduced to the concept of social enterprise, identifying the skills needed to be a successful social entrepreneur and engage with their toolkit resources. They worked in groups to plan their ‘Enterprise-in-a-Box’ challenge and prepared to start selling their product within the school over the coming weeks.
The aim is to give young people an opportunity to experience setting up and running a social enterprise.
Joseph, who sold out of his products and made a healthy profit of £24 in one week said, “I thought the MyBnk workshop was hard to do”.
Liam, Georgia and Lucy said “MyBnk workshop was very good and I learnt some facts about Social Enterprise” said Lucy. “It’s good and it’s a good cause and I learnt some new stuff” commented Georgia and “I thought it was good at making your mind up about wanting to start your own business in the future” said Liam.