‘Young Enterprise’ will help develop the student’s real-life business skills and experience. Local Accountancy firm, Dunkley’s have partnered with Bradley Stoke Community School to launch a new programme for Sixth Form students.
The ‘Young Enterprise’ company programme runs throughout one academic year and enables students to make all the decisions about their enterprise, from deciding on the name and product to creating a business plan, managing the student company finances and selling to the public at trade fairs.
All this takes place with the support of a volunteer Business Adviser (BA) who brings a wealth of business knowledge and expertise. Dunkley’s Marketing Manager, Nicole Crompton has stepped up to be the school’s advisor this year.
The company, made up of thirteen Year 12 students, photographed below, started their enterprise in September. Over the last term, the students have been making big decisions from company structure and company name to the product they are going to sell and their individual roles within the Board of Directors.
During the first term, various milestones have taken place from deciding to produce a Christmas cookbook with accompanying festive cookie cutters to their first trade fair experience at St Nicholas Market.
The trade fair was the company’s first opportunity to sell their cookbook to the public. This took place on a crisp Saturday morning in December. Despite the cold start, the company did extremely well selling over £130 worth of product, being placed 3rd within the overall company competition on the day.
This success spired the students on. As soon as the trade fair was over, it was time to produce the final product. The Christmas cookbook was only a filler product to sell initially to raise funds.
Knowing that they didn’t have long before the Christmas holidays and the second trade fair at the Mall Cribbs Causeway in February, the company had some serious thinking to do. Each student was therefore tasked with coming up with two well researched product options to pitch after the festive break.
Coming into the New Year the ideas were flying and after some rather long discussions, the company decided to continue down the recipe route and develop a set of recipe cards. To add a unique selling point, the students have developed character-based stories to add to the back of each recipe ranging from Eli the Elephant’s Escape to the Science Fair to Ali the Alligator’s Birthday Mission. The recipe cards will be sold in a pick ‘n’ mix pack with a utensil and themed cookie cutter.
The company is in the process of finalising this product ready for the trade fair at the Mall Cribbs Causeway on Saturday 24th February. This event is open for all so please come along and show your support. All your support will help the company progress to the area heats in March and with any luck the finals in April.
“I am very proud of how the students have grown as a company so far and this is just the start of their journey. I can’t wait to see how much they develop by the end of the year!”Nicole Crompton, Phonic Farm’s BA from Dunkley’s