Take ‘The Leap’ … Last week Young Enterprise held the North West regional final of ‘company of the year 2013’ at the Concorde Conference Centre at Manchester Airport – wow it is impressive!
But much more impressive were the young people who had made it to the final, including a team from Bramhall High School. The students, who are all aged 15 to 19, start their company, develop products or services to sell, raise capital, market their company and keep their own accounts. They even pay 20% ‘tax’ to the Young Enterprise scheme.
Bramhall High School – The Leap from the By Design team
The enterprises included a Vintage Clothing magazine, an interactive reading scheme aimed to help boys improve literacy skills, Shabby Chic shops, and personalised promotional items produced using sublimation techniques. The presentations were sharp and polished, delivered with enthusiasm – excellent team efforts. But my favourite was ‘The Leap’ – a book created by Bramhall’s By Design – to help 11 and 12 year olds making the transition to secondary school, a fantastic aid to allay fears and dispel myths written and illustrated by students who have already made ‘the leap’! With a sales forecast of 12,000 books in 7 months and anticipated profits of £19,000 – it is available now from Amazon – I don’t have any doubt they will achieve it!
These programmes enable young people to gain experience and the practical skills needed to set up and run their own successful enterprises.
By giving young people the opportunity to experience working life and by providing them with the right tools to succeed, our young entrepreneurs of the future will have better prospects.
Training in whatever guise is vital to feed a young appetite; if your business invests in its younger workforce, enter the Stockport Business Awards ‘Training Young People’ category. www.stockportbusinessawards.co.uk