Young Enterprise is a well established scheme enabling young people in the Sixth Form to set up and run a company. Students raise share capital, design and produce a product and sell it. They have to write a Business Plan and a Company Report and have to run meetings in a professional way by setting agendas and writing minutes. Each company is assisted by an adviser from a local business, who offers advice but cannot take over the company. The achievers (as the members of the company are known) experience the full range of business skills including team working, new product design, leadership, production, sales, marketing and finance.
The Young Enterprise qualification consists of two units:
Unit One: This internally marked assessment enables the achiever to write about their own experiences in their company.
Unit Two: This is based on a pre-issued case study and involves testing of business knowledge gained during the time of operation of the company.
Young Enterprise will enable achievers to gain team-working skills. There are many benefits to Young Enterprise and students find the experience rewarding, although frequently frustrating and at times stressful. Rather like some of the real-world situations they will experience in life beyond school!
The Abbey School's teams have been very successful in recent years. Zeus won the Reading Area final in 2010 and Best Presentation at the Berkshire final. Abbey teams in 2009 came first and second in Reading and both won prizes in the Berkshire Area final: 'Shazam!' won the Most Innovative Company prize and 'Zest' won the prize for Best Presentation.