At the beginning of the Autumn Term, Year 12 pupils from the
Girls' Division took part in a Business Enterprise & Awareness
Training day, run by Brian Muir from BEAT, as part of their
induction programme. This included various interactive sessions as
an introduction to the business world. Seminars delivered by
volunteer speakers from a range of commercial organisations ensured
that the course had up-to-date business input and expertise
covering tasks relating to human resources, management, marketing
and sales, production and problem solving. The girls undertook all
the tasks with enthusiasm, developing and honing personal skills
and qualities that will be needed in the competitive business world
of the future. Most sessions ended by the students making short
presentations to their peers, providing good grounding for the
impending business competition.
Following this day students formed teams of six to develop
prospective new businesses. Ideas for a new product or service were
formed, business plans and financial forecasts developed, all with
a view to asking a local bank for a business loan to set up their
new business. Throwing themselves in the Bolton School version of
The Dragons' Den each group, towards the end of the Autumn Term,
made a ten-minute presentation, backed up by a PowerPoint
presentation, to a panel of judges. Business ideas ranged from a
service to match students with suitable work experience placements
to producing stationery from recycled paper and selling accessories
on-line.
Although only five teams with the most viable business
propositions are selected to compete in the Girls' Division final
at the beginning of February, all our pupils enjoyed and gained
much from the opportunity to practise interpersonal and
work-related skills. Two teams are then chosen to compete with two
teams from the Boys' Division for the Langtree Homes Enterprise
Trophy.This year the two teams that won through to the final were
Accessories Online and Ladders.
We are very grateful to Langtree Homes Ltd for sponsoring the
Enterprise Trophy
We would also like to thank BEAT, Barclays Bank, BT, Milliken
Industrials, PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM who support our events
by supplying delegates, mentors and judges.