The City School students make it BiG!

The City School in Sheffield have just held their first ever business starter course for young entrepreneurs from within the school and are thrilled at the results.

Assistant head Ken Dunn explained,

"We decided to run this course with the support of the BiG programme funding, after a comprehensive survey of 970 students. We discovered 52 of them were already being entrepreneurial, setting up their own businesses with friends, designing products- including a sprinkling of young Del-Boys doing deals on E-bay and at car boot sales! The course was designed so that after the first day where the students had all gone through a personality profiling and business goal setting workshops with local entrepreneur Ruth Adams of In your Element, we could see who had the capability to make their business happen literally in the next week. We wanted ambitious, business-savvy students who can actually start to make money right here with school support before they leave. Some were as young as 11, so they have plenty of time to develop their skills!"

Schools enterprise coordinator for this half of the city, Mike Garnock-Jones responds,

"This really was a unique development in schools, providing aspiring entrepreneurs with enterprise training. We believe this programme at City School can be a model for others to take young people further in the business development agenda. Students have received a powerful mix of skills training and real-world experience from a dozen successful local entrepreneurs who offered practical advice, plenty of challenges and moral support in developing their ideas. The school is committed to developing these real business aspirations. The feedback has been so exceptional from everyone involved, especially the students themselves, we are keen to take the programme into other secondary schools around the city. How many events get every student saying it has been their best experience at school and rating it 10/10?"

Student Jamie Hough who formed an e-bay and local sale team with four of his pals couldn't agree more,

"I didn't think it would be like it was. I thought it might be a bit rubbish, but it was brilliant! We decided to come together as a team because we all knew each other and shared the same business idea. Now we are going to expand the business and pitch to get some funds from the school council to expand and advertise. Then we aim to get our own website and really start making some money out of it. The business experts gave me a different perspective, it was educational, making me think more about my E-bay business buying and selling. I really enjoyed it and will love to keep the business going."

The course was created and organised by two local entrepreneurs who often work together, Christina Lima Trindade who founded the Entrepreneurs Ladder and Working Woman to support women and business start ups, and Faye Smith who runs her own training and marketing consultancy, Keep your Fork.

Christina concludes,

"Originally I came into City to scope out the potential for business and enterprise throughout the school. Immediately I could see there are already eight businesses which with help and support could really take off. Now with the skills, contact and knowledge this programme has given them, these young people will be unstoppable! We have been overwhelmed by the potential of the students and support of the teachers.

Faye adds, "Our entrepreneurs who played the roles of angels and dragons all told us they were hugely impressed. Over the three days we saw hesitant youngsters learn so much, take on board the dragons' ideas and show so much passion, enthusiasm and commitment, we were blown away. They were all involved all the time, which is so rare, and at the end we saw students as young as twelve pitch to virtual strangers confidently without scripts. Like all the staff here, now we have seen the opportunities first hand, we would all love to see this programme replicated throughout the region."

Local business experts and entrepreneurs gave up their time, Mike Blundell of Blundells, Bettina Yarde of Morgan Dias, Johnny Douglas of Johnny Douglas, Luke Avery of Earth Design, Richard Campos of RC Business Support, David Pollard of I-ID and more all made the event a huge success.