'Dragons' Den' finale for The Big Deal
Posted on 13 June 2011
More than 100 students, aged 13 to 15, from nine schools across the region have worked for ten weeks with University staff and 29 business professional mentors from multinational companies including Google, HSBC and PKF.
The Big Deal has had another fantastic year. All the teams have worked extremely hard over the ten weeks
Amy Clow
After completing an online curriculum using the www.bigdealblogs.com website, the students, in teams of three or four, now face their biggest challenge – presenting their business plans to a Dragons’ Den-style judging panel in the final on Thursday, 16 June.
Held at the Ron Cooke Hub, the centrepiece of the first phase of the University’s campus expansion at Heslington East, the students will face nine dragons including Kersten England, Chief Executive of City of York Council, David Smith, Senior Account Director at Google, Tessa Stone, Chief Executive of educational charity BrightsideUNIAID and Andy Gibson, Regional Manager of Yorkshire Bank.
There will be three dens throughout the day, with a winning team from each heat progressing to the final session to compete for a trip to New York.
Ideas being presented by students include ‘Safe Bubbles’, a bath heat and depth sensor, ‘Personalised Occasional Cookies’, cookies with different shapes and greetings for special occasions, ‘Bully Bear’, a teddy bear which helps bullied pupils talk about their problems, and ‘Utterlymad Utensils’, an interactive cooking website.
The Big Deal aims to excite and inspire students from disadvantaged backgrounds about enterprise and careers in business. It is run by the Excellence Hub for Yorkshire and Humber, West Yorkshire Aimhigher (Leeds) and London-based charity Brightside UNIAID, in partnership with the University of York.
Programme co-ordinator Amy Clow said: “The Big Deal has had another fantastic year. All the teams have worked extremely hard over the ten weeks. I am always surprised by how enterprising the students are and we are expecting an exciting final! The Big Deal could not run without the support of the business mentors, who give up their time voluntarily to mentor their team. They do a wonderful job and the students really value their input.”
Students involved are full of praise for their mentors. A Year 9 team from Morley Academy in Leeds said: “It has been an honour working with our business mentor from York Metrics. He was 'super useful' and gave us lots of advice, constructive criticism and praise.”
The Big Deal, which is in its fourth year, was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Widening Participation Initiative of the Year 2010.
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