JOHN LEWIS VISIT FOR CAREER ACADEMY

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher and Career Academy Manager
Our Year 13 Business Career Academy students visited the John Lewis National Returns Centre this week. The students undertook the visit to see how one of the leading UK's retailers operates the returns aspect of its business.

The students were given a short history of John Lewis, including learning about the firm’s unique style of partnership of all employees, which came about from the son of the original John Lewis called John Sedan Lewis. He became known (and preferred to be called) Sedan Lewis to disassociate himself from his father. The students were fascinated to hear of his management style, for he was reputed to have a temper and was very easily angered!

The students also learnt about the development of a huge new store opening above Birmingham New Street Station and how John Lewis has repositioned themselves in the market and expanded their Waitrose supermarket stores.

The students were given a guided tour round the depot to see what happens when products are returned to the John Lewis, once they are deemed faulty or simply returned when bought online.

The students were also searched as they left the premises by a device that chooses people at random for security checks! This practice is due to the high value of goods that come through John Lewis on a day to day basis

It was a fascinating visit and the students enjoyed it. Thanks go to the staff at John Lewis for giving up their time to host us. Retail is a huge business sector, so it’s really valuable for the students to get a taste of what goes on behind the scenes.

Away from the Business Career Academy, the students’ A level counterparts took part in a sticklebrick activity this week, in which they learnt about non-financial methods of motivation. The task involved job rotation, in which students were divided into groups and given tasks to complete, then swapped over and repeated each others tasks. The students were then set a larger group task to design towers with sticklebricks. This involved teamwork, which the students all preferred, as it meant that they could develop their own ideas, which is often used in business as a way of developing teams.

STUDENTS PITCH BUSINESS PLANS TO LLOYDS TSB

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher

All last week, Year 13 students on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Business course were doing their business plan presentations.

Standing up and having to make a presentation is daunting at the best of times, but this year three representatives from Lloyds TSB were part of the panels to give students a bank managers opinion of their presentation. Richard Hall, Sharon Warren & Dawn Gilbert from Lloyds TSB are providing their expert financial help on what would happen if our students pitched their ideas to banks for finance.

Each presentation has been different; some even had sample smoothies for their Shakes 2Go business, others had sample menus for their Burger Express business. Each presentation was packed full of interesting ideas.

Other ventures pitched to the panel included plans for a bar, a restaurant, a takeaway, a mobile drink and snacks vendor and a bridal magazine. The idea for the bar was an establishment called The Hang ‘O’ Bar and this presentation included visuals of the uniforms that bar staff would wear. The restaurant business plan was entitled Around in 4 and was for a buffet-style restaurant selling Italian, Chinese, British & Indian cuisine.

Jai Chee kept up the food theme – this business plan was for a Chinese Takeaway, while the final food-related presentation concerned Hot Stop, a mobile hot drinks & snack service provider.

Dugan was the only business plan idea that was not related to catering of some sort and this was the pitch for a bridal magazine aimed at East & West brides.

This project really helped the students to be creative, which is essential for a successful business, but it also showed them all the different things they need to think about when setting up a business. Getting funding to launch a business often means going out and pitching your idea to lenders just as the students did and they learned how important it is to demonstrate that your business plan represents a good investment.

Well done to all the students who took part. There are some photos below and more on the College's Facebook page.

Ricoh Arena Conference for Career Academy

Posting by Ranjit Hayer, Business teacher and Career Academy Manager

Our second year Business Career Academy students have been sharing best practice this week with other Career Academies students at the Career Academies Conference at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

At the moment, the College currently operates a Business Career Academy, but other Career Academies in new subject areas will launch in September. The Career Academy is a national programme that develops the employability skills of young people. The College is working with Career Academies UK to secure workplace networks and experiences for students by linking up with local employers. Visits, guru lectures, business mentoring and paid internships form part of the Career Academy experience for students.

At the Conference, the students kicked off the day by taking part in a BP sponsored Trading Enterprise Game. It was a work-related game, which offered students the opportunity to put enterprise, maths and business skills into action through an exciting simulation of real-life trading. Each group of students had a representative from Yorkshire Bank on their table to help advise them through each round. The students had to buy and sell oil and make decisions on the current market conditions as they arose in each round, by receiving a news bulletin at the start of each round. One of the Sixth Form College’s students, Ryan Fryer was on the winning team called ‘Grease’.

The Conference also saw students given hints and tips on money management, which was especially useful for those students who are considering moving away to university in September.

After lunch, the students played a ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ game, again focusing on general money management. The rest of the afternoon was spent in different workshops, in which the focus was on the different routes to success and the skills deemed essential to get that success. Our students attended workshops entitled ‘University Life’, ‘A career in Accountancy’ and ‘Apprenticeship routes in Price Waterhouse Coopers’.

It was a great day and everyone had fun. This group of students have had a lot of great business experiences through their involvement in our Business Career Academy over the last year and a half, not least their 6-week summer internships. However, it was really useful for them to meet with other students from other Career Academies to see what they have been doing. It was a way of sharing best practice and the involvement of representatives from Yorkshire Bank was really beneficial too.