MyBnk

In November 2012, 7 North Shore Academy students from Year 9, 10 and 11 joined together and took part in Enterprise-in-a-Box programme to encourage awareness around social enterprise.

The students from a behavioural referral unit known as I-Space took up a challenge to sell as many ethical products as they could in the run-up to Christmas.

So what was the challenge? Well first of all of the students learnt the difference between a charity, a business and a social enterprise. Get it, Do it, Use it…is the simple model used in the Enterprise-in-a-Box programme.

Over 5 weeks the company devised a pricing strategy, identified their target audience and improved their confidence in selling exclusive ethical products to staff and students at North Shore Academy. The items that the company sold were Guerrilla Gardening SeedBoms and an African Prison Project CD called Freedom Cry. The story behind each product really helped the company sell as they took on board all of the important questions that potential customers were likely to ask.

The company soon excelled in ideas generation and it was their super smart marketing ideas that helped the company and they managed to SELL OUT of their items making a healthy profit of £64! The profits will be used as seed-funding in 2013 to start a business of their own and carry on their enterprising attitudes and amazing selling techniques.

Not only did the young social-entrepreneurs sell out but they gained very important skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving and managing a real social enterprise. Here’s how they did over 5 weeks…

Percentage of participants reporting good or better: Before the programme: After the programme:

• Understanding of what social enterprise is 14% 100%
• Ability to identify a target market for a product or service 29% 50%
• Ability to work out expected profit for a business 29% 100%
• Confidence in their ability to talk to people they don’t know 57% 67%
• Understanding of the importance of teamwork 17% 100%
• Confidence in using enterprise skills in the future 17% 100%
• Confidence in taking on responsibility 17% 67%
• Intention to set up their own business in the future 33% 83%

2013 will be another exciting year for the students as they have loads of fresh new ideas to generate an income and share their success with the rest of North Shore Academy. Here’s what the company thought of the Enterprise-in-a-Box programme:

“It was very good and makes you feel everyone can do it”
“Good, we kept communication and seen us regular so it was good”
“Great, explained very well and a good opportunity”

James Mellon, Teacher of the Student Behavioural referral Unit known as I-Space noticed a huge improvement in the learner’s skills confidence and understanding and commented on the programme and said:

“An excellent programme, expert delivery and perfect concept. Pupils engaged in every task and were given the opportunity to be successful. I would highly recommend the Enterprise-in-a-Box programme”

Thornaby Academy students have become social entrepreneurs thanks to a unique ‘Enterprise-in-a-Box’ project, delivered by MyBnk.

MyBnk is an education charity which helps 11 to 25 year olds manage their money effectively and make enterprising choices. Five Lamps are now delivering their programmes across the Tees Valley.

Teacher of Business and Enterprise, Nina Geragusian saw an opportunity to engage with MyBnk’s Enterprise Educational programmes for her GSCE Business Studies Class in June 2012.

Enterprise-in-a-Box is an all-inclusive social enterprise start up toolkit for young people. The challenge provides them with the tools to take their first steps as social entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to make a profit as well as make a difference to the world around them.

The challenge takes them through the stages of planning an enterprise – including market research, target audience, selling and pricing. The practical experience of actually running their social enterprise provides them with skills such as planning ahead, customer service and presentation, team working, cash flow monitoring and evaluating their experiences.

Throughout the session, students were introduced to the concept of social enterprise, identifying the skills needed to be a successful social entrepreneur and engage with their toolkit resources. They worked in groups to plan their ‘Enterprise-in-a-Box’ challenge and prepared to start selling their product within the school over the coming weeks.

The aim is to give young people an opportunity to experience setting up and running a social enterprise.

Joseph, who sold out of his products and made a healthy profit of £24 in one week said, “I thought the MyBnk workshop was hard to do”.
Liam, Georgia and Lucy said “MyBnk workshop was very good and I learnt some facts about Social Enterprise” said Lucy. “It’s good and it’s a good cause and I learnt some new stuff” commented Georgia and “I thought it was good at making your mind up about wanting to start your own business in the future” said Liam.

In June 2012 Thornaby Academy took advantage of Five Lamp’s new partnership with social enterprise MyBnk to have a taster of the financial programmes being offered in the Tees Valley area.

70 Year 8 students all took part in short sessions looking at their choices for now and the future.

6 groups of year 8 students at Thornaby Academy took part in MyBnk’s financial workshop called Money Twist. Money Twist is designed with 11-16 year olds in mind and looks at their choices now and in the future when it comes to the world of finance.

• The Money Twist programme consists of three highly interactive and adaptive sessions building young people’s knowledge around basic finance and helping them engage with money:
• Story of Money: History and features of money; forms of payment; currency and exchange rates
• Managing Money: Budgeting; youth employment; minimum wage; needs and wants; saving
• Banking Money: Interest; accounts; ethical banking; flow of money connecting the learning from previous sessions.

Here’s what the Young people at Thornaby Academy said after participating in the workshops.

“I thought it was really good and I will save my money in the future” – Shannon
“I think it was great and want to know more about it for my future. Thank You MyBnk” – Josh
“I know why and how I should save my money more” – Jake
“I think it’s good to have lessons about saving and I was given a lot of information” – Yasir

MyBnk also measured the impact the workshops have on the young people and the results at Thornaby Academy shown that 92% of the 70 students felt more confident about dealing with money in the future; 94% now had the ability to differentiate between personal needs and wants; 80% now had the ability to cut back spending on a budget to make savings; 83% were confident in using a budget and 89% were confident in making money decisions.

Nina Geragusian, a Business and Enterprise teacher at Thornaby Academy said

“The Money Twist workshops were excellent, fun, interactive, used great resources and was relevant to student’s understanding and managing of personal finances”

Students from Roseberry College and Sixth Form have been changing the world one box at a time by signing up to the MyBnK Future Sparks project delivered by Five Lamps

Choosing the Enterprise-in-a-Box programme as a catalyst to get the young students involved worked a treat and 22 Year 10 students took up the social entrepreneur challenge of marketing and selling exclusive ethical tool-kits.

The ethical tool-kits range from seedboms, guerrilla gardening hand-grenade flower bombers, Made-in-Carcere (Italian; Made in prison) are up cycled waste textiles that would otherwise go to landfill and cause environmental problems and an African Prison Project CD by Condemned Choir in an Ugandan prison, the main aim of this CD is to raise money for human rights and legal aid.

As part of the challenge the students learnt the difference between a charity, a business and a social enterprise. Get it, Do it, Use it…is the simple model used in the Enterprise-in-a-Box programme.

The next part of the challenge was for the teams to go off into the world with their tool-kits and started selling straight away using all the skills from the first session. These skills include negotiation, team work, problem-solving and tackling challenging customers head on.

The challenge was a real success and the 4 teams who took part managed to raise £106.55 by selling the tool-kits to other pupils, teachers and friends and family members. Holly, 15 said

“It was interesting and offered a new experience in marketing and selling”

The sessions had a positive impact on the students: 100% improvement in their understanding of what social enterprise is; 89% improvement in their ability to work out expected profit for a business; 95% improvement in their confidence in taking on responsibility and 74% improvement in their intention to set up their own business in the future.

Mr Wallace, Cover Manager at Roseberry College and Sixth Form said

“Great way to show students how to make an enterprise idea work”

Five lamps’ MyBnk project offer Enterprise education as well as Financial Inclusion and are all suited to tie in with many areas of the curriculum including Maths, English, Business Studies, PGCE, Work Related Learning and many more such as PSHEE.