Business and Economics students were set a work related learning task by entrepreneur Phil Kasumu whereby they embarked on a challenge to use their entrepreneurial prowess to turn a £1 loan into a profit with the profits raised going to the Bexhill Food Bank to help those in need within the community.
Claire McMaster of Working Options kindly fed back to us; “we are delighted to have been able to work with Business and Economics students at Bexhill College on the enterprise work related learning task introduced by one of our great volunteers, Phil Kasumu. Phil set the scene for the £1 Enterprise Challenge highlighting the key transferable employability skills needed, along with top tips from a ‘real life’ entrepreneur on how to approach the challenge. The novel and determined approaches taken by the students turned £1 into over £600 for the Bexhill Food Bank, which is mighty impressive from such a small loan.
In rising to the challenge, the students developed a variety of skills, including negotiation, communication, problem solving, team working and organisation to help them turn a profit in just 7 days. Some key highlights included a student who bought used golf balls from a car boot sale, cleaned them up and sold them at a profit at the local golf club whilst another bought flour and used the resources she had at home to bake cakes and sell them at a profit of £104”.
Jenni from the Bexhill Food Bank showed her gratitude by commenting “Just wanted to say a massive thank you to you and your students for their time and effort – not only to develop their own Business and Economic skills through their course, but to apply this learning and use the profits to support us as a local charity. The money raised could not have come at a better time as we are seeing a marked reduction in donations currently and we will use this money to buy fresh fruit and vegetables so that people have access to fresh produce and not just tinned and dried food”
One student appraised the process by stating “It was worthwhile as it encourages you to put yourself out there which I usually feel uncomfortable doing.” Whilst Chloe Cullen who made a £104 profit added “It was worthwhile as I learnt time management and communication”. Finally, William Penfold who used his initiative to buy and sell used golf balls said “It was very good to plan a business idea and fulfil that idea into real life. It was good to make a decent profit for charity”.
