Prince's Trust Social Enterprise Challenge

Hello I am James, and I am here to talk to you about my experience of the Prince's Trust Social Enterprise Challenge.

FIRST CHALLENGE

On the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, me and my group where told the news that we had won the initial round of the Business Social Enterprise Challenge, which was an online pop-up game that we participated in, over an entire school day.

The game was: you and your team had to run a simulated business online, in either fast food, plant selling or sports equipment selling. You could run your business eco-friendly, cheap and cheerful, premium, or a mix of the 3. During the game you had to manage a business by buying stock, pricing stock, employing, and advertising to get the best score at the end.

Our team won by trying different strategies, assessing feedback and persisting as we switched between fast food and sport equipment premium.

PREPERATION

For the net round of the Social Enterprise we had to create a business canvas to present to the judges and a pitch to be assessed on the day of the event.

It was hard to think of ideas but eventually because of my experience in the school council I thought of the smart bin - a bin that weighs your food waste and if you reach below average you get a reduction in council tax. We then individually created our parts and together built our canvas, which our teacher Miss Mittal helped improve, and then made our 3 min speech to present to the judges

It was had work creating the canvas and speeches as we had to spend hours at home working on it as well as having to give up many break times to practice and exchange feedback, but overall I was pleased with the final product.

ON THE DAY

On the day of the event we took at taxi to Orange, in Slough, and practised our pitch. We met lots of new people from other schools and as well as some of the staff until 11 o'clock, when we did our pitches. We were first and it was scary standing at the front in front of the judges, since I did not want to forget my lines, but in the end we completed it successfully.

Then we had a small break with beverages and biscuits and we returned to find another school “Church Mead” had won. I was disappointed but in the end we were runners up, which was pleasing.

Then they showed us around the building, and some computer hardware and how it works, then we had lunch which was pizza and desserts which were delicious. Afterwards we had a quiz then returned to school at 3pm.

Overall, I think it was a nice experience to meet new people and to learn about potential jobs in the future, and although we did not win, I learned a lot about business and pitching.

Thankyou Prince's Trust!