Award Ceremony – Westminster Enterprise Week
Thursday 19th November 2015
In the build up to this week a group of young people from Westminster Academy attended an innovative pilot enterprise programme by Vital Regeneration. These training sessions culminated in a Dragon’s Den event on Monday where they received the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a high profile panel of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Over the past week there have been some fantastic business ideas and the well-deserved winners of the Dragons Den investment are;
Parsa Madakah, Abdulaziz Ibraham and Regwan Miah (LifeSaver) – The company LifeSaver provides a package that has the essential needs for migrants when they enter Europe. They provide a bag that has all the essentials needed for survival. The prize is awarded in two stages; firstly they have to visit some centres, charities and potential customers to get feedback on their ideas to make up some tests for their products. Secondly, organise for volunteers to organise the bags taking into consideration the feedback from stage one.
Rasel Miah and Ahmed Ali (Refined) – A virtual reality headset aimed at students to engage them in education. The prize awarded is in two stages, firstly to buy a development pack for virtual headset and secondly attend a course in developing digital education software.
Sarah El-haj and Noor El- Dinnaoui (N&S Lounge) – A multicultural lounge/restaurant and a youth club combined with great entertainment and good delicious food. The prize awarded is to rent and run a pop-up restaurant at Maida Hill place on Harrow Road to test the idea with young people.
Syed Zahir and Fahim Ahmed (BikeSavers) – A business that specialises in repairing bicycles and selling renovated used bicycles. The prize awarded is to set up a bike repair centre and sell recycled bikes.
Angelica Monique Guamos Narvuaez (ThinkOutLoud) – a product called ‘Sonido’ a free app that connects multiple phone to create a speaker. The prize is awarded in two stages, firstly attend a digital academy course and secondly, organise a promotional event for the product.
Hasim Sharif, Vijon Ismali and Galdim Ilazi (Tempoze) – Wireless earphones. The prize awarded is to attend a digital academy course to develop the digital product of their business plan.
Congratulations to all the winners! We are so proud of the students and we are looking forward to offering on-going support for sustainability through follow-up, weekly, one-to-one business advice sessions, and workshops for the next 6 month period.
Vital Invest Panel
Monday 16th November 2015
Today, is the day we have all been waiting for as the pitches will be judged in a similar style to Dragon’s Den and scored for the first time in the competition. All 16 young people pitched their business ideas at Impact Hub Westminster to a panel of 4 member
1. Catherine Marchant, Bright Ideas Trust
2. Wendy Breakell, Westminster Kingsway College
3. Christian Tilleray, Vital Regeneration
4. Cllr Burbridge (morning session) and Cllr Hyam (afternoon session)
A ‘lite’ vital invest application was completed for submission to the panel members in advance. The pitches took 20 mins each based on: 10 min presentation (pitch), 5 min Q&A and 5 min panel discussion between the pitches. The proposed prizes are up to £1,000 (requiring itemisation of proposed spend and suppliers) and on-going start-up advice and support and the winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Thursday 19th.
Fahim said, ‘I felt nervous at the start as there were four people watching us but they were all very nice. When Syed and I started to present our idea, we started feeling confident as we had practiced. It was also something we were passionate about and the questions from the panel made you think on the spot’.
Angelica commented ‘the course has developed my confidence, communication and presentation skills. I feel that I am able to express myself more effectively.’ We were so impressed with the young people, their pitches were amazing! Well done to everyone.
Stay tuned to find out who the winner is…
Visit to Enterprise hub & successful entrepreneur
Friday 6th November 2015
Today, we visited Vital Regeneration’s #venture382 which is an exciting new central London pop-up enterprise hub on Church Street NW8 for start-up entrepreneurs. It’s a great space for start-up entrepreneurs and offers desk space, business broadband (Wi-Fi), a registered mailing address and a range of membership benefits including access to workshops and seminars, meeting rooms and networking opportunities. Shirley the spaces hub coordinator who works at #venture382 give the students an insight into the different businesses at the hub and Sarah commented ‘it’s interesting to see how many adults are passionate about starting up their own businesses and I hope that’s going to be me soon’.
We also visited a successful entrepreneur at Great Western Studios called Cleo B. CLEO B is a premium footwear brand, known for its statement shoe clips and sneaker accessories that allow you to personalise your footwear and stand out from the crowd. Beautifully combining colourful design with practical wearability CLEO B creates unique footwear accessories and shoes that are recognised for their fun and versatile aesthetic. Cleo’s designs have been seen on notable British musicians, actresses and models. Noor commented on the visit ‘ it was so interesting to see how her business idea was so small but yet so successful. I also really liked the space at Great Western Studio’s as her office space was colourful and unique like her shoe accessories’
Professional Communication & Presentation Skills Workshop
Monday 19th October 2015.
During the course young people will have to come up with their business ideas and present them to a panel of 4 guests at the end of the course. In today’s workshop we wanted to prepare the young people for their pitches and we had a special guest trainer called Hilary Lyons who join us at Westminster Academy from the Speakers Trust. The training will offer young people practical exercises to help them develop self- confidence and trust in the speaking process. Also, to develop an awareness of presentation techniques and styles for the panel.
The main session aim was ‘why communication and presentation skills are useful?’ The students introduced themselves and give feedback to the group with their first impressions. They informed Hilary of their business ideas and some were concerned with how to deal with nerves. Hilary ran a short activity on how to deal with nerves and the students felt calmer. She also taught them the communication triangle and give them the top tips for confident public speaking.
After the workshop, the young people presented their pitches to Hilary and some teachers at Westminster Academy. The presentations were filmed to give the young people the opportunity to evaluate their work and look at their delivery, voice and body language. We were very impressed with the feedback and immediately the students felt more confident.
Overall, the students learnt how to..
– Speak with confidence and clarity – using their voice for impact
– Think on their feet – impromptu speaking
– Collect and to use relevant information – structuring your speech
– Enjoy public speaking
– Understand and use body language to emphasise their words
– Receive group and individual feedback given by our expert trainer throughout the day
The feedback was extremely positive from all of the attendees
Public Speaking Confidence : 90%
All rated the training : Very Good
All rated the trainer : Very Good
All would recommend the training to others.
Here are some of the comments;
“This was a brilliant opportunity and I am ready to speak in front of the public” Parsa
Excellent training” Solomon
“I love how the activities and tips of my training motivated me to do well in my future presentations” Angelica
“It was fun” Sarah
“Very good training” Galdim
Thanks to Hilary Lyons from the Speakers Trust.
Marketing the Business
Monday 12th October, Creative Product Promotion
Today, we discussed our business ideas and defined the product by marketing the idea, in terms of product, price, promotion and place. This was a great workshop as it give the young people the opportunity to think about their business ideas and the price it would cost.
We then also looked at promotion strategies and formed some interesting ideas about where it would be sold for example, online, in a shop or both. Overall, today they completed a marketing strategy to promote their business.
Business Idea Generation
On Friday 9th October, our first #PitchMe session started!
This introductory session focused on business idea generation and addressed key aspects of a business start-ups. The young people worked in teams of 2-3 and formed their idea creation then discussed the problem and solution of their ideas. After they defined their solutions they came back to their business idea and identified the target market, market trends & research and discussed the skills needed to run a business effectively. The workshops are facilitated by Awad Bhenick from Blue Sky Media.
So far, we have 6 teams..
Keep reading to find out more about how they market their businesses
#PitchMe Investing in Westminster’s Youth Entrepreneurs
#PitchMe” is an enterprise course with Westminster Academy 6th formers in the style of Dragons’ Den style pitches from the young entrepreneurs.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is the keynote for this Vital Regeneration project.
The #PitchMe programme prepares the young entrepreneurs and provides…
- Structure to realise the business idea through planning templates designed for novices; business model canvases and one page mind-map business plans.
- Marketing, including Brand Development, to make products and services realistic and show how they would appeal to customers and consumers.
- Workspace package at the enterprise hub, #Venture382, which includes a free desk, Wi-Fi, a business address, enterprise workshops, a peer community and networking opportunities.
- Visit successful entrepreneurs business
- Pitch preparation to camera, for personal feedback as well as independent appraisal, giving a sharper focus to coaching, building commitment, strengthening motivation and boosting confidence prior to going before the Vital Invest panel.
- Sustainability through the follow-up, weekly, one-to-one business advice sessions, seminars and workshops over a 6 month period.
Three Hands Forum on Future Talent
4 young people from Vital Youth were engaged as the production team to create a short film of the Three Hands Forum. An annual event that takes people from corporate organisations outside of their usual settings and provides them with a half-day of thought leadership, stimulation and provocation on issues around corporate responsibility, sustainability and the development of people. Between 50-70 people attended and it proved to be a very good event.
We created a film for Three Hands which explored the challenges businesses face to become employers of choice when young people are looking for meaning and purpose in their jobs. We filmed the event, capturing the main messages and sentiments of the event.
The young people who formed the production team enjoyed the responsibility of making the short film and are very keen to take part next year.
#CareerHacker in Law Showcase
On the 8th September we saw the young people and their guests attend this showcase event, where the screening of their Career Hackers project was shown to the Law firm’s staff and other distinguished guests.
The film featured various interviews with members of staff from Weil, Gotshal & Manges Law firm, conducted by the team of young people taking part in this unique project, talking about their own career pathway into this sector, and also a road map into the various opportunities within a Law firm was also produced as a career resource for young people.
Two of the young people have also taken up work experience opportunities within the firm.
Vital Youth 