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Launch Pad makes its mark for Enterprise Week

Enterprise Week started early for some in the North East this year, as the North East Enterprise Bond launched a whole month of enterprising activity.

In conjunction with the ‘Make Your Mark Challenge 2008’ and South Tyneside College, the team launched a whole month of enterprising activity, when students boarded the Launch Pad mobile enterprise education centre to take part in a challenge aimed at developing their skills and brainstorming money making ideas.

Two days of events on board Launch Pad last week saw more than 40 Business Studies students from South Tyneside College take part to come up with enterprising ideas and then present them to a panel of judges in a Dragons’ Den style pitch.

Dragons included Carole Metcalf, entrepreneur and member of the UCanB Team, and John Goymer, 14-19 Learner Manager at South Tyneside College. Carole Metcalf said: “I was very surprised at how clued up some of the students were on the basis of putting a business together, which has given myself and the fellow ‘Dragons’ a taste of the wealth of young entrepreneurial talent which we have in the region - and what we have to look forward to in the future when they put these ideas into practice.”

Diane Fisher-Naylor, Chief Executive of the North East Enterprise Bond added: “We’re working with a number of organisations and partners to really make this year’s Enterprise Week go off with a bang. “It’s really important to encourage young people to consider setting up in business as a career choice available to them, and the day also linked the students up to organisations in the region who provide support to would-be entrepreneurs.”

For further information about Launch Pad, contact Diane Fisher-Naylor at diane.fisher-naylor@northeastenterprisebond.org.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .