MEET THE ENTREPRENEUR
Thirty pupils attended this year’s Meet The Entrepreneur panel evening in the Warden’s Room. OBs Milly Fortune (J 00-02) and Yaser Martini (C 83-88), along with leading tech entrepreneur James Murray spoke at length to the group, giving very different accounts of their journey and experiences in catering, consumer brands and technology.
There were a number of superb questions from the audience and, following the closing remarks, all three guests stayed around and were the centre of numerous further questions from pupils.
A number of pupils went onto Milly’s list for paid work and others took away business cards from Yaser with offers of help if they ever needed any.
SHELL ADVERTISING CHALLENGE
All 158 pupils in the Shell took part in a relaunched advertising challenge. The Horizons Department were supported by four parents and an OB for the event, all of whom work within this creative sector and were able to mentor a number of groups throughout the morning before coming together to act as the judging panels for the afternoon.
The day began with some scene-setting by Horizons, including the criteria by which they would be judged as well as thoughts on the power of a good logo and brand, the importance of customer knowledge and competitors in any market.
Following the briefing there was the usual scramble for the best object picked from a selection provided for the pupils. Engagement was good and there were some great ideas for products and businesses which culminated in a presentation to the judges and their peers. Once all the groups had presented, finalists were selected who then had to present their ideas to the whole panel of judges.
WORK READY SKILLS WORKSHOP
Pupils from the Sixth Form took part in two work ready skills workshops which provided them with presentation skills and time management skills training.
The content of both these workshops was pitched at a level that one might expect to get in the corporate world when entering one’s first job. It was clear from those who attended that they found them very useful as can be seen from the couple of unsolicited comments received by the Horizons Department.
“Thank you for organising the workshop today; I found it so interesting and helpful and I really do feel like I learnt a lot.”
“I just wanted to thank you for organising the workshop today. It was very useful and has made a huge impact on my confidence when presenting as well as being really enjoyable!”
