12 Thornaby Academy GCSE business students have raised enough dosh to send themselves on an exciting business trip thanks to an exciting project that Five Lamps are running across the Tees Valley, MyBnk’s Enterprise-in-a-Box.
Between them they raised a whopping £76 in 2 weeks.
The Enterprise-in-a-Box programme is a challenge and is suited for a range of young people. Their age and knowledge base determines the depth of detail required. This project can be run in a simple way for younger participants and for older ones, many layers can be added to maximize impact. The programme consists of 2 sessions and provides resources for teachers to fit enterprise and social enterprise elements to their own lesson planning.
In session 1, participants are introduced to the concept of social enterprise. They split into groups, receive their products and create their business plan. Teams prepare to start selling over the coming weeks. In session 2, teams present back their experiences. The presentations are monitored and teams are judged on their creativity and hard work.
Young people learn from participating in Enterprise-in-a-Box the practical experience of running their own social enterprise; working as a team, conducting market research, identifying their target audience, advertising, pricing, customer service, cash flow monitoring and planning ahead.
Feedback from the young people was really positive:
“It was good to try something new and get a feel of what it would be like to own a business”
“I think the MyBnk workshop was very good and I think it has trained me in how to be an entrepreneur and how to deal with customers and stock”
“I think it was very good and it’s given us an insight into running a business”
“I think that this is a good idea because it helps young people develop real business skills”
Miss Geragusain, Teacher of Enterprise at Thornaby Academy said,
“Absolutely fantastic for developing and enhancing student’s enterprising skills. The students loved being responsible for selling a social enterprise product, handling money and devising their own pricing strategy”