Students have been given a taster of what it is like to run a business in a bid to boost their employability skills.
Teams of budding Lord Alan Sugars have been given £50 and three weeks to make a profit in City of Bath College’s Enterprise Challenge.
The teams of two to eight students came up with their own business plans, handled their own budgets and bought their own supplies.
The six competing teams then went head-to-head by setting up market stalls in the reception of the Roper Building.
The team that makes the most money wins and gets to keep their profit, while the other teams’ profits will go to Make A Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of terminally ill children.
The Enterprise Challenge is a pilot project run by Engage4 Life and could be rolled out to other Colleges across the country.
Louise Croft, the College’s Information & Guidance Co-ordinator, said the Enterprise Challenge was helping students gain the skills and experience to create, plan and run their own businesses.
She said: “It’s been a great learning experience with a lot of healthy competition between students. We are encouraging enterprise and the students have gained quite a lot of confidence.”
Level 3 Business students Alice Jackson and Jack Harris came up with the imaginative idea of setting up their ‘Quick Snap’ business.
The students spent their money on fancy dress costumes such as Spiderman and Super Mario then asked people to make donations in exchange for a photo.
Alice said: “We’ve learned a lot about how to approach new people, we’ve sometimes had to persuade people so it’s improved our confidence.”
Media students Josh Howse-Stuart and Russell Pittman headed to the cash and carry to stock up on huge bags of mini-eggs and jelly beans.
They then weighed and re-packaged the sweets into 75g bags and asked people to make contributions of at least 50p.
Josh said: “We quickly made our £50 back and sold out of sweets; lots of people said they were buying them as early Easter presents.
“We really enjoyed the challenge as it pushed us to think about new ideas and things we wouldn’t normally do.”
Five Level 3 Fashion students formed the ‘Funky Baggers’ team to make and sell tie-dye fabric bags in a variety of colours.
The students bought the plain bags and dyes online, then created different tie-dye designs. They even invested in a fabric pen to personalise the bags with people’s names.
Savannah Kingman, 16, said: “We wanted to do something that would appeal to students who have always got things to carry.
“It’s been going really good, and the selling experience will definitely help us in the future.”
Students from the Step-Up Progression Diploma used their money to buy a variety of chocolate moulds then headed to the kitchen.
They spent the best part of a day making chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies, then packaged them and sold them to make a profit.
Scott Lewis, Regional Manager for Engage4Life, said he was pleased with the progress of students.
He said: “I’ve helped students from the very beginning with their business ideas and the costing, they have learned lots of business and budgeting skills.
“We’ve also seen the students learn about team work and leadership. It’s given them a really good idea of what it’s like to run a business.”
Students will spend a second day behind their market stalls in the Roper Building on Thursday, April 18th.
