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CENTRE INCUBATES BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

Published on: Friday 17 July 2009

Berwick WorkSpace and Berwick Community High School have today announced a joint venture designed to give the Y13 Business Studies pupils a hands on insight into running their own business. The project, The WorkSpace Challenge was officially launched at the Berwick WorkSpace, North Northumberland's only dedicated business incubation centre. The WorkSpace Challenge will run from September until April and pupils will be involved in developing their own businesses from their initial concept and planning through to the challenges of running them successfully on a day-to-day basis.

Throughout the scheme, students will be mentored by business and marketing professionals and will have the opportunity to interact and take advise from businesses and support services within Berwick WorkSpace.

The aim of the July launch is to give pupils plenty of time to come up with their business ideas over the summer holidays. On their return to school in September, pupils will attend a 'Be Your Own Boss Workshop' at Berwick WorkSpace outlining exactly what is involved in running a business. They will spend the rest of the month planning their business ideas before undertaking a 'Challenge the Dragons Funding Review' again at Berwick WorkSpace.

Giving us further background Andrew Martin, Berwick WorkSpace Centre Manager says: "This is something we are very proud to have initiated as it will allow these young entrepreneurs the opportunity to experience running a business; just like the businesses already at the WorkSpace. In addition they will be able to use exactly the same support services that we offer to new businesses. Our aim is to give these students a better understanding of their education modules by experiencing the process of starting and operating a business first hand and in real time."

Funding for each successfully approved project will be a £50 starter grant and £100 of business support vouchers. As in the real world, pupils will be able to buy in specialist help from other organisations; for example they may choose to use their vouchers to buy in advice on marketing, financial or technical advice from other school departments or Berwick WorkSpace.

Once funded, the projects will have regular progress reviews throughout the winter and spring terms. The final phase in March 2010 will be a presentation by the companies to the "Dragons" on how successful they have been and how this was achieved. As a result of these presentations and reviews, a winning company will be awarded the WorkSpace Challenge Award for Enterprise. All the companies taking part including the winning team will present their business ideas at the Enterprise Celebration Event 2010.

Berwick WorkSpace has 35 individual offices and conference facilities and also offers support and advisory services allowing its businesses to develop at their optimum rate. It is managed by TEDCO Ltd, which has over 24 years experience in business development and already manages three other very successful centres in the North East.