Programme
The workshop covers how a small business gets started, priced, tested, and explained to someone else. Students work on an idea of their own rather than learning definitions, and none of it is tied to an exam syllabus.
Topics covered
- What makes something a business
- Finding a problem someone would pay to solve
- Customers — who they are, and how to ask them useful questions
- What things cost, and what you charge for them
- Setting a price, and changing it when nobody buys
- Testing an idea before spending money on it
- Writing a one-page plan
- Explaining an idea in three minutes
A school can pick a few of these, or ask for a single session on one topic. We’ll tell you if we think a topic isn’t a good fit for that year level.
Format
- Session length — 2–3 hours, fitted to the school’s timetable
- Number of sessions — one on its own, or a series if the school prefers
- Group size — up to the school. Students work in small groups within it.
- Year levels — Grades 6 to 8 (ages 11 to 14)
- Room and equipment — a normal classroom with a whiteboard or projector. We bring the printed materials.
- After the session — every student keeps a printed pack with links to free resources. Students can send us questions through their teacher, and we reply the same way.
- Cost to the school — none
What students produce
If a school books a series, each group builds up three things on paper by the end:
- A one-page plan for one idea — what it is, who it’s for, and what it would cost to start
- A simple costed budget for that idea
- A three-minute pitch, delivered to the rest of the class
We don’t grade students or report back on individual students to the school. Student work stays with the students and the school, and we don’t publish it. The Safeguarding page sets this out in full.