Post 16 Apprentice Day - GEW Hull

170 sixteen to eighteen year olds on a range of post 16 educational programmes in Hull attended this inspirational day at Staff House at the University of Hull. Inspiration was provided by a number of guest speakers who all gave personal reflections on their own unique journeys and the lessons that each had learnt from them. The highlight of which was international business guru Ruth Badger, who had featured prominently in the BBC Apprentice series.
There were keynote addresses from three widely different local entrepreneurs. Hull’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 Amanda Hartley told the young people how she had realised her dream of opening a florists only a couple of years after leaving school, defying some people who said she was too young and that the business would not survive the recession. while Phil Benson of Xing Health spoke about the development of his business, including the initial impulse to set up following a visit to America and on to the present with their opening of a Xing shop in the heart of the Shambles in York and their new school programme, he also said they hoped to open a Smoothie Bar in partnership with pupils from Malet Lambert School next year.

The young people then moved from the theoretical to the practical, working in teams to complete the Badger’s Sett activity. Each team was set the challenge of coming up with a marketing concept for a product or service using an object placed on each group’s table as inspiration. Each group then had 45 minutes to come up with the name of the product, the retail cost and suitable marketing material, all of which had to be linked to the Olympic Games 2012.
They were then thrown into the Badger’s Sett, meaning they had to give a dynamic four -minute presentation to a panel of senior heads of local organisations. Also 1 person from each team was allowed to make a 1 minute pitch to camera

The ‘Badgers’ were:

1 Ruth Badger
2 Judy Ward, Marketing Director, Mail News & Media
3 Jonathan Leafe Managing Director Strawberry
4 Martin Shaw Managing Directors, D3 Office Group

The Winners

• First Prize £500 donated by William Jacksons went to Centre Flag from Hull College
• Second Prize £250 donated by Hull College went to Light of Champions of Hull College
• Third Prize £150 donated by St Stephen’s went to Talk Torch of St Mary’s College
• Fourth Prize £100 worth of vouchers donated by NPS Humber Hull Posh Screen Tec from Hull Training,
  also each member got £10 in vouchers for their overall team work
• Fifth Prize £100donated by Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce went to Essential Box from Hull
  College
• Sixth Prize £100 donated by Lynne Hope Communications went to Celebrating the Word – Enterprise
  Club at the University of Hull
• Seventh Prize £100 donated by Ruth Badger Consultancy went to Photo Frames of Construction Centre at
  Hull Training
• Video Pitch winner donated by Hull Training £10 voucher for each team member went to St Mary’s
   College

Ruth Badger said

“I told the young people how important they are – they are the Next business generation. They need to believe in themselves and actually get out there and do something and they certainly showed their entrepreneurial skills when they faced the judges at this event just like in Wolverhampton were I was born, Manchester were I work Hull should be proud of its young people as they are truly enterprising.”