Supporting enterprise education in schools

06 July 2011

In October 2010, Mouchel supported the national Visit our Schools and Colleges Week. A number of Mouchel staff visited schools and colleges local to their offices or where there were existing business links to strengthen the links between education and industry. As part of this, David Walker: Principal Consultant visited Westgarth School in Marske, Redcar & Cleveland, at the request of the Tees Valley Education Business Partnership.

The visit has led to an ongoing relationship with the school, with Mouchel supporting the school's enterprise education activity. In March 2010 David was asked to talk to a group of Year 5 pupils (aged 9-10) about the different jobs that people do.

Before meeting the pupils, David asked them to write down what they thought his own job involved from what they had been able to find out about Mouchel on their own. These are some of the things that, according to pupils at Westgarth Primary School in Marske, occupy the time of a Principal Consultant:

•         Negotiating with people

•         Being nice to customers

•         Selling ideas

•         Having meetings about stuff

•         Listening to people's opinions

•         Making things happen

•         Not being rude to customers

•         Looking smart

•         Thinking about profits

•         Planning things that people would like

•         Making sure information is right

•         Writing lots of notes

•         Checking the projects every hour

•         Sorting out problems

•         Having lunch

•         Making decisions

•         Listening to ideas and passing them on

•         Telling people what the price is

•         Talking a lot

David also talked to the pupils about managing a project. The staff at the school then developed some work with the pupils that involved them in having to solve a real-life problem in their own classrooms through the development of a new product. Groups of pupils worked together on this over two months and they regularly e-mailed David with updates and questions that he responded to.

In July, the pupils visited the offices of the Mouchel Partnership in Middlesbrough to present their finished products to a panel of Mouchel judges who listened to a presentation from each group and then asked questions about each product. At the end of nine presentations, the judges then agreed on the one group whose product demonstrated an innovative solution, backed up by excellent project management and presentation skills. The pupils also had a look around the offices so that they can re-design their own classrooms in line with how space is used in an office environment.

The pupils really enjoyed this work and their teachers have seen so many benefits from the links that they have developed with Mouchel.

Read childrens thoughts about the role of a Principal Consultant in the 'our people' section of the website!