In Ireland, as part of the BEES project, 5th class participated in a two day BizWorld programme run by Bank of Ireland. Aileen came into the class on Thursday and taught them about different aspects of setting up and running a business. The class were split into four groups and asked to come up with a business plan.

They were each responsible for different departments such as finance, sales, marketing or design. They worked hard to put together a pitch for a Dragon’s Den style presentation the next day. This involved doing market research, as well as designing posters and creating a live advertisement. They continued this work on Friday to get ready for their pitch.

The manager of Bank of Ireland in Terenure, along with Mr Packham were the Dragons. They could each invest up to 100 BizBucks. Each team had clearly worked very hard preparing their pitch. They spoke clearly and knowledgably about their product / service and were well able to answer the Dragon’s questions. Each team secured an investment in their business, before then selling shares in their company to 4th class.

The whole class really enjoyed the experience and seem to have developed lots of entrepreneurship and employability skills in the process (October 2017).