Raising Entrepreneurs

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The business brains of the future went head-to-head to develop a fictional strategy for the British Commercial Vehicle Museum.

As part of UK Enterprise week, six teams of year 10 and 11 pupils from schools across the borough pitted their wits against each other to devise ideas for the future of the Leyland attraction.

Now in its fourth year the ‘Schools Enterprise Challenge’, organised by the Business Venture Group in partnership with South Ribble Borough Council, provides young people with the opportunity to experience the world of business and the many different considerations involved.

Each team was set a task to devise a business plan as part of which they were required to consider finance, staffing, marketing, planning, the law, competition and profitability.

Any viable ideas that the teams generated could one day be implemented at the British Commercial Museum, with the pupils themselves involved in the planning process.

Experts from South Ribble Borough Council, Business Venture Group, Sharp Marketing, the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, Barclays Bank and Clever Cloggs bookkeeping training were on hand to provide advice and support to each team.

Once each team had decided upon a strategy they had to prepare a business plan and then pitch their ideas to the panel of experts in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ type scenario.

The experts then had to decide whether they were ‘in’ or ‘out’ in terms of supporting the proposed business strategy.

The overall winners were ‘Then and Now’ from Walton-le-Dale Arts College and High School who impressed the panel with their presentation skills and innovative ideas.

Ideas suggested on the day included creating a mural on the wall adjacent to King Street, introducing interactive electronic displays of working engines and having a driving simulator which would give visitors to the museum the chance to experience what it is like to drive a vehicle from the past.

Read the full story in The Leyland Guardian.