Enterprising Students Win Top Awards

The enterprising efforts of over fifty students from across North Norfolk were recognised on Thursday 5th July at Aylsham High School with a celebration and awards event to mark the culmination of the Aylsham Enterprise Hub Challenge.

Sponsored by many leading names including Barclays Bank, Business Link East, Norfolk County Council and The Hoste Arms, the Aylsham Enterprise Hub Challenge project was the brainchild of Kate Wilde of Engage with Business and Julie Ward, Deputy Head of Aylsham High School, who wanted to give students a taste of what life is actually like in business and inspire them to consider a future in enterprise.

“Young people in Norfolk face many challenges with often low aspirations and a high number of 16-18 year olds not in employment, education of training (NEET),” explained Kate Wilde, a member of the Institute of Business Consulting. “The teams from six Norfolk schools each had to find a local business willing to engage with them and be guinea pigs in a re-branding and marketing task designed to develop the students’ confidence, team skills and entrepreneurial flair in a real-life business environment, outside the “normal” teaching/learning experience.”

Sponsor Paul Whittolme, founder of the hugely successful Hoste Arms at Burnham Market, was thrilled to be involved with the project: “We invited all the teams to the Hoste for a networking evening so they could learn more about our experiences and also gain an understanding of the importance of doing business after 6pm. I really like to see young entrepreneurs encouraged to do well as I wasn’t successful in school myself.”

Alderman Peel High School’s all-female team of “Bright Sparks” secured the best logo award for their work with The Globe Inn, situated in their home-town of Wells-next-the-Sea. General Manager of The Globe, Amanda Jenkins, was bowled over by their work: “We are branded as part of the Holkham Estate so I had to give the students a very tight brief to work within to help us promote our new outdoor barbeque area. They took that on board completely and worked so well to come up with a viable logo idea that I am sure Lord and Lady Coke (owners of the Holkham Estate) will absolutely love!”

With support from business mentors from Active Marketing & Design and Connexions Norfolk, a lively group of ten students from The Park High School in Kings Lynn picked up the prize for best client relationship for their work on a new logo design for Little Abbey Farm, a farm diversification business at Pentney near Kings Lynn. Diane and Ben Howlett welcomed the students input into the marketing of their bed and breakfast, farm shop and machinery maintenance business they run with their son:

“The students visited the farm and took on board a lot of information about the business to design the logo around an image of a monk, which is very fitting as Little Abbey Farm is built from stone collected from the ruined abbey in the village,” explained Mrs Howlett. “The students have actually motivated us to drive the marketing of the farm forwards and we plan to use their design as our new logo.”

Park High School student Megan Kay (14) from Kings Lynn, who also picked up an individual prize for exceptional entrepreneurship, was delighted with the team’s award: “We never expected to win and we are really excited! I can’t believe they are actually going to use our logo for real.”