Apprentice experience for enterprising St Bede pupils

Budding entrepreneurs from St Bede Academy have battled it out in an Apprentice-style competition as part of the school’s Enterprise Week.

All 17 classes at the academy were asked to put their business and maths skills to the test and develop a new product, which could be sold to members of the public to generate a profit.

The young tycoons came up with inventions ranging from stress balls to personalised plant pots, and pitched their ideas to judges Nicola Mason and Chris Wilson from Moore and Smalley Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers.

Nicola and Chris granted the pupils funding to bring their creations to life, and each class offered the finished products for sale at a ‘street market’ held at the academy.

Moore and Smalley also awarded prizes to the class which made the most profit, and the class which came up with the most enterprising idea.

Class 4S won a tablet computer for their Creative Can Company, which saw the children generate a winning profit of £225 by selling different products made out of recycled cans.

A second tablet was awarded to the pupils of class 3B, who won the ‘best idea’ category for designing items made out of Scrabble tiles.

Nicola Mason, corporate manager at Moore and Smalley, said: “Events like this one are an excellent way of introducing children to business and inspiring our next generation of entrepreneurs.

“The innovation and passion exhibited by the pupils was a credit to St Bede Academy and every class had excellent ideas.

“The academy has some fantastic young business brains and hopefully the event will give these children a knowledge of business practice, not to mention a taste for success!

“It really was a pleasure to lend our support to such a worthwhile project.”

Victoria Jordan, who organised the event and is maths co-ordinator at the academy, said: “We are extremely proud of the pupils’ creativity and the hard work they put into developing their products.

“The week was a lot of fun for all involved and the children learnt some important lessons in areas including maths, problem solving and teamwork. They not only designed and produced their items, but conducted their own market research, investigated costs and calculated profit, which they presented to the judges as part of their pitch.

“All the products were a huge success and who knows, maybe the next Alan Sugar and Karren Brady are among our business-boys and business-girls here at St Bede!”

St Bede Academy is a Church of England Academy which is located in the Morris Green area of Bolton.

Many thanks to The Bolton News for the featured image.