Business Challenge for Year 8
Wednesday 28th February saw all of Year 8 have the opportunity to take part in a Business and Enterprise game where teams run a manufacturing business for the day. Each group took on the roles of CEO, Head of Marketing, Finance Director, Design and Sales etc and were able to:
- Manufacture products, buy supplies and sell their products
- Produce marketing campaigns and win orders from buyers
- Manage their finances and operate their bank account
- Deal with emergencies e.g. stock market crash or strike
The morning was fast and furious, sometimes stressful (just like the real working world!) and some great product designs emerged. Activities like this are part of the integrated Careers programme across all years at the Ashcombe School and link to the Gatsby Benchmarks 4 and 6, defining the best in careers provision. Students were able to understand roles within a business and the transferable skills they can develop to help them in the business world. The aim of the game was to generate profit from the design and manufacture of an item (a key ring). They had to think of a company name, design the key ring, buy the materials and negotiate on the sales of the product.
Positive feedback was received from students, teachers and SATRO (who delivered the activity) - ‘it was great, really engaging and really excellent life skills, some students who put themselves out there never usually would’.
