Students learn entrepreneurial and business skills at EnterpriseFest
Concord has held its first EnterpriseFest, an alumni-led initiative to demonstrate to sixth formers how enterprise skills can help them get their ideal internship or job, or even become their own boss.
We are hugely grateful to all the Concord alumni experts, entrepreneurs, financiers, marketers and medical doctors who supported this important initiative. All our 6.1 students attended as well as some of our 6.2s who took a break from exam revision.
Our keynote speaker was Concord alumna, Emma Jones CBE, the UK Government Small Business Commissioner. Emma shared her journey from a Concord student to becoming an entrepreneur, founder of Enterprise Nation, co-founder of StartUp Britain to her current Government role.
Following her speech, Emma was joined on stage by a panel of alumni experts who answered questions from the audience on the subjects of professional networking; branding; how to start a business and get funding; leadership; transferrable skills & changing careers and also what motivates them to run their own businesses.
Following the panel discussions students were invited to attend breakout rooms with additional expert alumni to delve deeper into specific areas which interest them. Aspiring medics learned about leadership in the NHS and global health projects, students also found out how big tech company, Microsoft, manages its public reputation.
We also welcomed some more recent alumni who shared their experiences of getting top internships (examples included the Walt Disney Co. and Trading Analytics at BP), student leadership and starting businesses at university in order to prepare for future careers.
Concord has a long history in producing successful financiers. We were delighted to be joined by experts from McKinsey & Company, HSBC, PWC and EY who shared their business advice.
Entrepreneurs, Marketers and Management Consultants completed our list of delegates, sharing valuable business advice to a very enthusiastic audience.
The afternoon ended with a professional networking session where students put into practice networking skills, learned earlier that week from Assistant Principal (Student Futures) Diane van Dongen.
Concord Vice Principal, Robert Pugh, commented;
“We pass on a sincere thank you for the magic our alumni helped to create. The insight and experience that they shared with our current students reassured, inspired and motivated a significant number of young people.”
