St Ninian’s High School year eight students are coming up with some bright ideas to help the local community and learn about business by taking part in an innovative educational project. The Manx Telecom Core Skills Enterprise Challenge is for students aged 12 and 13 who work in groups of five or six pupils for a 10 week period. Each term during the 2015/2016 school year, all of the year eight pupils will get to participate in the project which is run as part of the ‘core skills’ section of the curriculum. This project is the first of a number of Manx Telecom backed schools initiatives during 2016. The Island’s leading telecoms company is also sponsoring an awards scheme for Castle Rushen High School students; a Discovery Day at Dhoon Primary School; and the annual Crucial Crew Week in which primary school pupils from across the Island learn important life skills. Manx Telecom also sponsored Isle of Man Newspapers’ Young Citizen of the Year Awards in 2015, and are doing so again this year.

The Enterprise Challenge is being organised by St Ninian’s teachers Tony Roberts (Subject Leader for Business Education) and Stephen Edwards (Core Skills Co-ordinator). Mr Roberts explains how it works: “The challenge is for students to come up with either a business idea, or a project which has a social benefit. For example, some students are working on a project in which they purchase or make items to sell for a small profit, while others are working on ideas which will help children or older people, or the community in general. We’re very grateful to Manx Telecom for supporting this project.”

For business ideas, students can be given a small amount of money as ‘seed’ capital to get their idea off the ground – and this funding has been provided by Manx Telecom as part of their sponsorship. Some of the funds will also be used for prizes to reward teams for their efforts.

At the end of each term the teams involved will face a judging panel to explain their ideas and how they would put them into practice. For example, one group is working on an idea to help older people by creating handy business-cards with contact details for important services they may need such as local authorities, health services and charities. This is something pupils could complete with the help of funding to produce the cards, but other project ideas may be on a larger scale and not practical for students to implement. Whatever the idea, the most important point is that the students must demonstrate that they have created a well-thought out idea and a plan of action.

Voirrey Barron, Manx Telecom Marketing Communications Manager, commented: “This initiative, along with several other schools projects we’re backing this year, is part of our commitment to encourage children and young people to develop self-confidence and learn new skills. The St Ninian’s Core Skills Enterprise Challenge is an excellent idea and a project we’re very proud to support.”

Photo - Pictured are some of the pupils taking part in the Manx Telecom Core Skills Enterprise Challenge this term. This group, who called themselves Star Walkers, organised a fancy dress event which raised ?59 for the MSPCA. They won ?40 from Manx Telecom which the pupils donated to MSPCA making a grand total of ?99 for the charity. The ‘Star Walkers’ team are pictured with Marg McGee, Manx Telecom Marketing Executive; Jason Moffatt, Head of Service Operations at Manx Telecom; and Stephen Edwards, Core Skills Co-ordinator at St Ninian’s.