Ceteris (Scotland) Ltd and Developing Young Workforce Forth Valley are continuing to work together to encourage and support employers to engage directly with schools and colleges.
Leading by example Ceteris Business Adviser Mandy Campbell went back to school in November to support two Inspiring Enterprise activities, one with Alloa Academy and one with Sunnyside Primary School.
She attended a “Dragon’s Den” session for P6 Pupils at Sunnyside Primary to provide advice on their new business ideas and then, at Alloa Academy she worked with 6th year pupils to go over their enterprising plan to start up and run a school café! Mandy ran a Question and Answer session with the group, covering business issues such as the importance of branding, the name of the enterprise, cash flow, business management, personnel issues, governance and the all too crucial matter of stock control and people management.
In addition to this, through their partnership with Alloa Academy supported by Developing Young Workforce Forth Valley, Ceteris agreed to a small sponsorship award to assist with this year’s school Christmas Panto, ‘Princess Penelope, the Pea and the Frog Prince’.
Margaret Mary Rafferty, MD of Ceteris, said, ‘Both of these activities are key to developing confidence, presence and strength of character in young people. Performing arts have long been recognised as being great for confidence building, but actually devising, setting up and then managing what is effectively a small business certainly represents an inspiring learning opportunity.
Managing sales, promoting your business, dealing with customers and making sure you don’t lose money are vital life and work lessons. And the best way to learn them is by practice.
We are delighted support Alloa Academy in both these activities, and to be working with Developing the Young Workforce to do so. It’s also a good experience for our staff, and I would urge any business person who feels able to give up a bit of time to support the DYW and their agenda to bring business and education closer together to come on board.
To repeat a cliché, young people are our future, and too often we moan about their attitude but don’t support them to change it. Let’s put our money where our mouths are and get involved.
Mandy Campbell adds, ‘I had a great day at a Dragon’s Den session at Sunnyside Primary School, listening to the young peoples’ ideas on developing a new business, and later holding a Q&A session at Alloa Academy for young people developing a business. Both sessions were great fun and full of enthusiasm. I would love to have other businesses participating too, so please do give DYW a call if you want to get involved.
For more information and to get your business involved with local schools, contact Michelle Carr, Programme Co-Ordinator, Developing Young Workforce Forth Valley on 01259 726690, 07816 220645, or michelle.carr@dyw.forthvalley.ac.uk