As part of our Careers Programme, all year 8 students took time out of lessons last Thursday morning to participate in an Enterprise Challenge. Dividing them into teams of between four and six students, Mrs Brice, Head of Key Stage 3, set them the challenge of turning their team into a small business with the aim of creating, packaging and marketing an exciting new chocolate brand. With Easter just around the corner, they had the additional challenge of packaging and marketing mini Easter eggs.
Students quickly learnt about the structure of a small business and assigned team members to the roles of Managing Director, Marketing & Sales Manager, Buying Manager, Financial Director, Production Manager and Brand & Advertising Manager. Soon it was time to agree upon a brand name, packaging style and how much to spend on materials to enhance their mini chocolate eggs. Meanwhile the marketing, finance and creative experts had to decide on the target market, the cost and pricing structure and the content of their presentation for the launch of the chocolate product.
With so many vital decisions to be made in a short space of time, there was a real learning buzz amongst the year 8 students. Directors needed to use negotiation and conflict resolution skills to inspire and unite their team and all members had to work to a tight deadline to package their product and rehearse their presentation.
Twelve teams launched their products in front of a panel of judges; Business teacher; Shaun Davies, Careers Advisor; Kyra Kellawan, Head of Marketing & Communications; Marta Aragon and Head of Secondary; Francisco Escobar. The judges were looking for creativity, teamwork, sound financial planning, a strong brand and clear marketing message and they were not disappointed.
Several teams stood out for their creativity: Both Egg-cellent and Dairy Love had strong brands and advertising campaigns and knew their target market but Lucky Drops (Alexandra Gudkova, Zifan Wang, Irene Dumas, Natalia Unger, Sulamif Salzhan and Marcos Astolfi Nunez) won third place because of their hidden “Golden Egg” incentive. In second place came Exel-egg (Alisa Khudoyan, Carlota Ranea, Maria Bolkhovitinova and Enrique Barriera Velazquez) with their catchy brand name and sound financial plan. The overall winners, however, were Alca-eggs, led by Sonya Pak and created by Aleksei Praslov, Ines Mackintosh, Sonia Sherman and Lola Cooper. This team stood out for their ambitious but realistic financial forecast, impressive packaging and poster design and their eco-friendly marketing strategy. The judges were also impressed with their teamwork as they had clearly nurtured everyone’s individual talents.
While all teams had an enjoyable morning and were rewarded by being able to eat their chocolate mini-eggs, the importance of their hard work should not be underestimated. The Chocolate Challenge put students in work-place roles that were carefully designed to build their teamwork, leadership and communication skills and harness their creative and entrepreneurial talents. We hope that the Chocolate Challenge has inspired our students to become the business movers and shakers of the future.
