Two teams of young entrepreneurs from Leeds have successfully designed and manufactured two unique high quality products which aim to tackle social issues in just five days in the latest Creative Enterprise Challenge.
The teams of students aged between 11 and 15 went head to head in the challenge, organised by Just Lovett Design, to meet the brief of creating a sustainably focused product made using recycled materials that also tackled a specific social or environmental issue. Their idea had to be backed by a business plan, brand and marketing strategy.
It was the latest of the challenges held during the school holidays which are designed to give young people an opportunity to unlock their entrepreneurial and creative potential in a real life ‘The Apprentice’ meets ‘Dragon’s Den’ experience. They also develop their practical skills along the way by learning handicraft, graphic design and digital fabrication skills, and make their products using recycled wooden boxes and waste plywood donated by Leeds based integral blinds manufacturer Morley Glass.
The latest winning team, ‘Team Therapysaurus’, created a dinosaur themed therapeutic box designed to help children and parents navigate their way through mental health issues. The product helps children express their emotions through small tokens that represent their feelings at a given time, which are placed into an attractively designed box that they can paint and decorate themselves.
Runner up was ‘Team Money Monkey’. They created an educational product for young people aged 6-13 to help teach them to be smarter with their money and the lesson that ‘everything has a price’. The product includes paints and assets to decorate its wooden box and monkey, plus the tokens that parents give to the child after they complete their chores with the child’s goal to fill up the box to gain a reward for their efforts.
Both teams were required to come up with a product name and explain how they would market their product with a view to ultimately making a profit. They were guided through the week by Sami Lovett, founder of Just Lovett Design, who developed the Creative Enterprise Challenge to encourage more children to think about starting their own business after completing their education.
At the end of the week, the ‘mini businesses’ developed by the teams were judged by two successful entrepreneurs, with whom the students had to negotiate to secure fictitious investment. This latest programme was judged by Russel Harvey, who is better known as The Resilience Coach and Ben Westerby, founder of Westerby Consultancy.
Sami Lovett said: “We were really impressed by the level of teamwork and ingenuity of both teams. We absolutely love working with students to help them plan, design and make their products, as well as teaching them core business skills along the way.
“One big moment for us is watching the teams pitch their products to real-life business owners at the end of the week. We see such a huge change in confidence in the students and that is our main goal. We can’t wait to help more students over the summer holidays.”
The next Creative Enterprise Challenges will take place at the Just Lovett Design studio at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, every week during the school summer holidays starting on 17th July and running through to week commencing 28th August, with places for ten children every week.
