Bringing together business, education and students

Ten teams of pupils from Eastbourne primary schools accepted the Junior Enterprise Challenge organised by Eastbourne Education Business Partnership in association with Scerri Solutions. They were competing for the new Challenge Trophy kindly sponsored by EDEAL and Eastbourne & District Chamber of Commerce.

Prior to arriving at the Congress Suite, courtesy of Eastbourne Theatres, the teams had set up marketing companies with names including, Blue Stripes, Dream Star and Wild Cats. They had allocated job roles, namely, manager, finance, sales, buyer and marketing and designed their logo.

Upon arrival, the teams were informed that they were bidding to promote the new Eastbourne Carnival. They had to create a carnival logo, poster and flyer, write a radio advertisement and design a carnival souvenir. They produced a display of their work, presented the radio advert and kept an accurate record of their costs, anticipated earnings and ‘profit’.

During the challenge there were special ‘master classes’ in finance, marketing and radio advertising plus regular managers meetings to ensure that everyone was on track!

Representatives from EDEAL, Chalvington Communications, Barclays and Apollo Property Services were on hand to assist the teams with business advice and helped with judging and prizes. Manor Creative Corporate Gifts also contributed materials and prizes.

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Mike Thompson and Stephen Lloyd MP attended to promote the Carnival and played a key role with judging and presentation of prizes to the winning teams. Barnaby Bee made a special visit to encouraged the teams to help put the ‘buzz back into Eastbourne’.

Wise Owl Marketing from Moira House Junior School was declared the overall winner. Runners-up were Team Venture-TV from West Rise Junior and Polegate Chanity from – yes, Polegate. MATAM from Pevensey & Westham CE Primary were also highly commended. The winners received the new trophy, produced by Semantics, plus vouchers from Chalvington Communications. Everyone received certificates and corporate gifts.

Asked what they thought about the event, some of the pupils said, “I enjoyed today because it was great fun. We worked really hard so we hope we have done our best and made you proud”, “The hard thing was rushing at the end. The good thing was that we had no arguments”, “Found it fun but stressing – but we tried hard and enjoyed it”. Enough said!

This new event recognised the importance of enterprise to the local economy and aimed to put some real business lessons into context for the pupils. As well as making learning fun, it encouraged teamwork and helped them to develop their practical skills. “We were pleased that so many schools were able to take part and grateful to everyone for their support. We look forward to the 2012 challenge”, said Steven Goss-Turner, Chairman of Eastbourne EBP.

The next big event on the EBP calendar is Eastbourne Youth Radio that will broadcast on 87.7FM and www.eyr.org.uk for the 11^th year from 16^th-18^th November. This will be followed by the annual Pantomime Technology Challenge on 28^th November.