We were invited to sponsor an award at the 2012 Enterprise & Skills Challenge Celebration this month – an opportunity to recognise the achievements of students from around the area as they go through the difficult process of starting a business and making (if possible) a success out of it.
Listening to their presentations as they explained the difficulties they overcame with products, team differences and sales; brought home what a difficult commercial world it is out there and how important it is to learn about it before you venture off for real.
Queen Elizabeth School won the Innovation Award we sponsored, which was a good result for me; being an ex student I couldn’t think of a better winner even if I didn’t have a hand in the selection process.
Other schools present were Bournemouth School, Parkstone Grammar and Bournemouth School for Girls with students mainly year 12 but some (very brave ones) from year 10.
If I were brutally honest after a long day sometimes the last thing I want to be doing is heading straight off out again for work, but boy was I wrong!
Presentation after professional, confident presentation showed that business is alive and well and ready to be taken to the next level with all these young entrepreneurs – I was really impressed and it was a great evening – thank you for letting us be a part of it.
Jenni Wilkinson – Head of Marketing