By Natalie Wilkie
Clayesmore Senior School’s Year 9 pupils were recently set a young enterprise challenge: over the course of three days, students conceived, made, and marketed a new soap.
Soap industry experts, Neal’s Yard Remedies, and a number of volunteers from the business community, including representatives from Barclays, Natwest, J.P. Morgan and Olives et al, assisted the schoolgirls with the creation of their products.
Following an introduction to the soap industry by Nicky Daley, from Neal’s Yard Remedies, the students formed their own mini companies, deciding on roles, defining their target audience and coming up with the product name. They also attended workshops on soap making, marketing and how to manage for success.
The young entrepreneurs had to take environmental factors, packaging, health and safety, and money in to consideration when creating their product.
The students had to display their homemade soaps on exhibition stands and gave a five-minute presentation, before airing their advert.
Business experts judged the entries, and Body Food was named as the best overall product as it featured a child friendly soap in a sponge.
Teacher, Mrs. Hayter, believed that the challenge “really helped to develop entrepreneurial skills and taught the students how to cope with real life business challenges”.
One volunteer, Phil Bevis, from Andrews and Palmers Chartered Accountants, said: “Without exception I found all the pupils to be extremely well behaved, polite, engaging and full of youthful energy and ideas – they are a credit to the school and their parents.”
