Business Apprentice Challenge
On Friday 7th June, we had the opportunity to be part of a team of twelve (split into two teams of six) from St Paul’s to participate in the Business Apprentice Challenge at St Peter’s Catholic School in Guildford. It was an exciting event that brought together students from various schools in Surrey including St John the Baptist and St Peter’s Catholic School to compete in a tough competition.
Our mission was to create an innovative ice lolly product and present it to a panel of real entrepreneurs. On arrival we wasted no time and immediately jumped into brainstorming sessions as we knew we quickly needed a strong foundation to stand a chance against the other teams. Since all ideas had to be completely original we had to conduct our own market research to demonstrate the potential for success of our respective products. It was a great challenge and it pushed us to think creatively and work collaboratively.
Once we had our ideas we divided, the team into different roles: Managing Director, Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, Exhibition Manager and Presentation Manager in these roles we had control over our own section of the project; for example creating the TikTok to enhance our marketing scheme and creating the presentation to show our product to the judges. When the time came for the presentations, our teams ‘Power Pops’ and ‘Nutrify’ gave it their all. We delivered compelling arguments as to why the entrepreneurs should choose our products to invest in showcasing all our hard work. The presentation was particularly exciting for ‘Nutrify’ as they came home with a second place finish only narrowly beaten by one of the St John the Baptist’s teams.
Participating in the Business Apprentice Challenge was a great opportunity to get first hand experience in the world of entrepreneurship and enabled all of us to develop better teamwork, collaboration, perseverance skills and more. Interacting with real entrepreneurs and receiving their feedback – both positive and negative – was extremely useful as it allows for valuable input from a professional. After another narrow miss for the top spot, we shall be making sure we mentor the new Year 12’s to win in 2024!
Report by Peter in Year 12
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