School students Pitch for business challenge

Entrepreneurs of tomorrow from schools across the Midlands will be pitching their bright ideas to business leaders at a University of Wolverhampton enterprise event.

The Pitch aims to raise the aspirations of school pupils aged 13-16 by allowing them to experience enterprise and employability in a new way. The two-day, residential business challenge supports them to develop confidence and critical thinking skills in business.

The Pitch event will return to the University’s Telford Innovation Campus on Thursday, 19 and Friday, 20 March 2015 as part of the University’s outreach activities to support young people in schools.

Participating school groups will need to think up and present a creative solution to a real-life business challenge with support of a University graduate mentor.

At the end of two days’ hard work and planning, students will 'pitch' their idea in timed creative presentations to business representatives. Each team will be judged against the original brief and competing schools’ presentations, with an individual pitch and overall winner announced at the end of the day.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Ian Oakes, says: 

“The University is delighted to be hosting The Pitch 2015, which aims to help young people to develop the enterprise skills needed in their future careers. Employability is one of our top priorities – with proven results, as 94% of our graduates are in employment or further study six months after graduating. Many of those graduates are employed in our region and an increasing number are starting their own businesses and creating jobs for others.

“Our focus with an event such as The Pitch is to enable younger generations to gain work experience on a real project, enhancing their skills and making them more employable. Events such as this will enable young people to be confident, prosperous and excellently equipped for their future in employment and higher education, and in turn help to boost our regional economy.”

The Pitch aims to support young people in developing entrepreneurial skills, providing them with the experience of working in real life working environments and is one of many events organised by the University to support youth development in the West Midlands.

The University will support students taking part by delivering workshops on how to create the perfect pitch, as well as leadership, teambuilding, marketing, creative thinking and ideas generation.

The focus this year will be on ensuring that participating students develop detailed insight into business development and learn about key skills required to secure future employment. The experience promises to be practical and informative, giving students the opportunity to demonstrate their creative flair and business talent.

During last year’s event, 23 teams of 138 school pupils gained key skills in leadership, team building and problem solving before making their final pitch to a panel of judges. Feedback showed that students found The Pitch hugely enjoyable and helpful in inspiring them to use tactical, creative and critical thinking in the future.

Organisations involved last year included Lego Education, the Black Country Living Museum, Capital FM, Star City, Ultra Furniture, and the charity Promise Dreams. Businesses involved this year have been kept secret and will be revealed on the day – adding the element of surprise to the event, which aims to be exciting, creative and engaging.

Further details:

www.wlv.ac.uk/thepitch

For more information please contact Iyma Atiq in the Media Relations Office on 01902 32 2448.