Steam Powered Stories, in association with Learn and Grow, opened the minds of 25 Morrison Comprehensive School pupils last week who took part in a Dragons' Den Enterprise Week.
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The Dragons' Den Enterprise workshop aims to introduce students to the world of enterprise, and more importantly, to how maths is required and applied in the workplace.
The workshop began on Monday 23rd June where students were encouraged to understand the concept of enterprise and entrepreneurship, aspired to identify the two types of enterprise (social and commercial), and incited to recognise and learn what skills are needed to be a successful entrepreneur.
Pupils named famous entrepreneurs. Sir Alan Sugar, the multi-millionaire who created his own business as a teenager, became a key role model for the students who would later create their own business and product.
Pupils named famous entrepreneurs. Sir Alan Sugar, the multi-millionaire who created his own business as a teenager, became a key role model for the students who would later create their own business and product.
(photograph from www.telegraph.co.uk)
Steam Powered Stories returned to Morriston Comprehensive School on Wednesday 25th June encouraging students as they began creating their businesses, and as they later planned and designed their innovative products.
Students were randomly placed into groups, and after considering roles and responsibilities, the aspired entrepreneurs considered their target audience, where their product would be sold, along with the more prying matters of finance; this is where the application of numeracy in the workplace really came into play.
Steam Powered Stories and Learn and Grow worked alongside pupils to help them consider financial costs of making their desired products. Students were expected to consider:
1) How much their product would cost to make?
2) How much the company's workers would need to be paid in order to create the product?
3) What the company's monthly budget would be?
4) What price the company would sell their product for?
5) How many units the company would need to sell to make a profit?
6) If the product would be sold online, how much would package and shipping cost?
Although the above questions appeared complex and perplexing for students to consider at first, when the pupils sat down together and considered each question, they thrived in calculating costs, and were pleasantly surprised that good numeracy skills are needed in the workplace in order for a business to be successful.
After considering the above questions, students began creating their desired products. Each group had a unique business name and product:
Group one- 'A Pair and a Half'- Creating three socks to avoid losing one.
Group two- 'H20 Customs'- Range of novelty cups, handmade with various designs.
Group three- 'Generation 21'- Recycling and rejuvenating second hand clothes.
Group four- 'Funky Vinyls'- Using vinyl records to create handmade clocks.
By the end of the second day, students had considered the above questions and had created their products. In preparation for the Dragons' Den pitch on Friday 27th June, students considered what made their products unique and worthy of investment, and looked forward to the exciting challenge of selling their product to the Dragons.
Friday 27th June saw students pitch their ideas to three judges, Jess from Steam Powered Stories, Richard Breeze from Lloyds Bank, and Adrian from Learn and Grow; pupils praised their products and showed excellent knowledge of how much it would cost to create their products and how many units they would have to sell to make a profit.
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'Funky Vinyls' pitch
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Students were randomly placed into groups, and after considering roles and responsibilities, the aspired entrepreneurs considered their target audience, where their product would be sold, along with the more prying matters of finance; this is where the application of numeracy in the workplace really came into play.
Steam Powered Stories and Learn and Grow worked alongside pupils to help them consider financial costs of making their desired products. Students were expected to consider:
1) How much their product would cost to make?
2) How much the company's workers would need to be paid in order to create the product?
3) What the company's monthly budget would be?
4) What price the company would sell their product for?
5) How many units the company would need to sell to make a profit?
6) If the product would be sold online, how much would package and shipping cost?
Although the above questions appeared complex and perplexing for students to consider at first, when the pupils sat down together and considered each question, they thrived in calculating costs, and were pleasantly surprised that good numeracy skills are needed in the workplace in order for a business to be successful.
After considering the above questions, students began creating their desired products. Each group had a unique business name and product:
Group one- 'A Pair and a Half'- Creating three socks to avoid losing one.
Group two- 'H20 Customs'- Range of novelty cups, handmade with various designs.
Group three- 'Generation 21'- Recycling and rejuvenating second hand clothes.
Group four- 'Funky Vinyls'- Using vinyl records to create handmade clocks.
By the end of the second day, students had considered the above questions and had created their products. In preparation for the Dragons' Den pitch on Friday 27th June, students considered what made their products unique and worthy of investment, and looked forward to the exciting challenge of selling their product to the Dragons.
Friday 27th June saw students pitch their ideas to three judges, Jess from Steam Powered Stories, Richard Breeze from Lloyds Bank, and Adrian from Learn and Grow; pupils praised their products and showed excellent knowledge of how much it would cost to create their products and how many units they would have to sell to make a profit.
'A Pair and a Half' pitch
'H20 Customs' pitch
'Generation 21' pitch
After considering each product, pitch and each businesses' use of numeracy skills to calculate profit for their products', the judges had the difficult choice of choosing the winning product.
Yet after thoughtful consideration, the judges believed that Funky Vinyls was an innovative and unique product that would sell out on the consumer market!
Steam Powered Stories (SPS) would like to congratulate all students who took part in the Dragons' Den Enterprise Week; you all did exceptionally well and are set to strive as entrepreneurs and in your future studies.
Additionally, SPS would like to thank Richard Breeze for coming along to support the day. Your presence epitomised the 'What You Say Counts' aims which strive to encourage everyone to believe that they can succeed in maths, and that society must comprehend that good numeracy skills are needed to achieve and co-operate in the workplace.
Many thanks to Morriston Comprehensive School for enabling the Dragon's Den Enterprise Week to go ahead; we look forward to working with you in the next couple of weeks through another workshop.
If you require any information about Steam Powered Stories, Learn and Grow and their excellent and effective workshops which aim to enlighten and educate the younger generation on numeracy and its place in the workplace, feel free to contact Hayley, Steam Powered Stories' Business Counts Co-ordinator directly on 01685 872385.
Additionally, you can contact SPS through email, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and don't forget to follow SPS by clicking the links above ^^^
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more from Steam Powered Stories' blog next Wednesday!
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