It is often said that the youth of today are tomorrow’s leaders, but we have 88 x 11 year old children who believe they are today’s leaders – especially in business!

free@last has been working with Cromwell Multi Academy Trust, which includes Bordesley Village School, to run a Year 6 Entrepreneurial Challenge. The children have worked in small groups to create a new product and will develop a prototype, packaging and commercial, ending with a pitch to a panel of judges, to see who’s product is the best!

Over 3 weeks in June this project significantly inspired and encouraged children and young people to use their creativity to start their own business and generate their own income from an early age [much better than having to get up at 5:30am and start delivering newspapers, as I did at their age!!].

This amazing project is only made possible by the remarkable business men and women who have volunteered their time to work with the children and direct their ideas and enthusiasm for business. Our team of business mentors are:

Stephanie Snade, Psynergie Consulting Ltd

Matthew Heathcote, Right Time Recruitment

Mike Pavely, Transtrading Ltd

Jayne McIntosh, Air Aesthetics Clinic

John Moore, HCB Accountants

Ben Churchill, KPMG

Sean Sale, Just Applications

Spencer Turner, Approved Shopfitting & Interiors

Mark O’Sullivan, BanaBay

Ian Vesey, Warwick Vesey Solicitors

There were some awesome inventions that our children have created and 3D printed by the amazing guys at Central Scanning, and we had 2 amazing photographers & a designer – Ewen Rankin, Paul Painter and Wayde Raphael – working hard to help the groups to crate a design for their product, as well as a commercial and a pitch.

The final challenge for the teams was to present their product, commercial and pitch to a panel of judges, which was made up of James White (Right Time Recruitment and winner of The Apprentice 2017), Paul Faulkner (CEO Chamber of Commerce), Rena Sandhu (KPMG) & Naomi Spencer (Candy Bubbles).