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How we're helping students develop business skills

July 2022

Written by Ines Pena, Digital Content Executive

On 1 July, we welcomed students from IntoUniversity to our Brighton office as part of our continuing commitment to supporting our local community through our Inspiring Better Futures Initiative, which focuses on education and training, financial resilience and improving life opportunities.

Sixteen students, their teachers and accompanying IntoUniversity staff were joined by a team of OneFamily volunteers in Take Five, our office café, for a day-long intense business-focused workshop.

What we got up to

As part of IntoUniversity’s task, students were split into two teams of eight and competed to gain the most funding for a large charity concert. Students had to assign corporate roles within their teams, such as CEO, finance director and branding manager, and plan their event from the ground up.

OneFamily volunteers joined the teams as mentors and helped guide them through their tasks, with one volunteer joining IntoUniversity staff in the decision-making trustee board that assigned the students the funding they asked for.

They presented their plans, decisions and calculations to the trustee board in a series of meetings where they had to hand in various planning documents and forms. From designing logos and planning social media campaigns to writing letters to donors and figuring out how to keep a large event climate-friendly, the students worked hard to come up with brilliant ideas and find ways to make them work from a corporate point of view. At the final presentation, both teams really showed their strengths, making the final decision a very close call.

Over the course of the day, students who started out a bit nervous and insecure really came into their own and grew confident in their skills, ideas and decisions. Towards the end of the afternoon, many had shown themselves to be brilliant business minds in the making!

Students from IntoUniversity

What is IntoUniversity?

The workshop day was fully designed and run by IntoUniversity, an organisation that helps young people growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. IntoUniversity provides local learning centres where young people are inspired to attain their chosen aspiration. They’ve been working at the heart of communities since 2002 and currently operate 35 different learning centres in 18 cities throughout the UK.

The task that took place in our office was a part of their FOCUS programme, where students take part in workshops and trips designed to cultivate their ambitions and show them what different career paths might look like. It’s a programme made to increase their motivation, foster ambition and help them develop transferrable skills like teamwork and communication.

OneFamily was happy and proud to support an initiative that helps young people go further in life and motivates them to work towards their career aspirations. After what we saw during the workshop, we’d even be over the moon if they came back to work with us in the future! For now, however, we’re really looking forward to the next workshop.

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