Member Article

Local primary school kids enter the “Dragon’s Den”

Think Money Group has teamed up with Altrincham-based social enterprise Stepping into Business to offer local children an insight into the working environment.

Stepping into Business offers bespoke enterprise programmes to school children from around the UK and having delivered courses at 55 schools this year, their “local approach nationally” is certainly making an impact.

Over 100 eager children arrived at Think Park to pitch their ideas to the ‘Business Angels’ in a Dragon’s Den style event held in the company’s auditorium. Over recent weeks the children from Davyhulme Primary and Barton Clough Primary School have been working on product ideas and prototypes to pitch to three ‘angels’ including Emma Dinnen, Staff Welfare Coordinator at Think Money Group and Chris Tighe and Brian Tollitt from United Utilities’.

The children demonstrated the skills they had developed with Stepping into Business over the preceding weeks with each group producing a comprehensive business plan including marketing strategies and financial projections.

Times Educational Supplement award-nominated Stepping into Business is a not-for-profit organisation which connects businesses and schools in order to provide training programmes to children.

“Our objective is to provide opportunities to students who may not always thrive in a classroom environment. Through showcasing their products, working within a team and providing feedback to their peers, the children are gaining confidence and expressing themselves creatively” said Dinah Turner, Director.

“For many of the children, this is their first experience of the business world. They have been given a great insight at Think Money Group, one which will prove invaluable to them in years to come,” Turner added.

Think Money Group’s Emma Dinnen, said “We’ve loved having the kids here at Think Money Group. The quality of all the presentations was amazing and there were some business ideas that really would not have seemed out of place on Dragon’s Den. Thank you to Stepping in to Business for allowing us to get involved.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lisa Appleby .