Igniting the entrepreneurial spirit in the next generation

Digital Innovators is thrilled to be working with Year 10 students at CORE Education Trust at CORE City Academy.

As part of the COREWorks initiative, on the Digital Innovators Skills Programme, these students will have the opportunity to develop their core skills such as collaboration, leadership, communication and more. Simultaneously, they will work on a project set by Digital Innovators, which will enable them to apply their skills and develop their ideas in a work-simulated environment.

In order to stimulate some ideas, ignite the entrepreneurial spirit, and add some perspective to their sessions with the DI Team, we took a team of enthusiastic students to the University of Birmingham Start Up Incubator Launch at The Exchange!

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Getting inspired…

The evening began with some introductions from the University of Birmingham which explained the origins of the Start Up Incubator. During the session, the founder of Student Beans, James Eder, unexpectedly gifted CORE City Academy student, Daniel, with a book for bravely standing up in front of the audience to introduce himself and explain his reason for attending, which was to learn from others and nurture his interest in being an entrepreneur.

This was followed by some exciting presentations from University of Birmingham alumni who introduced their business ventures, which ranged from the UK’s first tickets and activities subscription service – Buckt – to an app to track and treat Eczema – created by doctors who suffer with the condition – Eczema Doc – and many more.

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Taking initiative!

Following the presentations, the team were left feeling inspired by the young people who had shared their stories, from an initial idea to start-up business.

After realising they had some questions about some of the businesses, and some suggestions for how these businesses could be improved, the team took to the floor and approached various founders to share their thoughts.

The initiative taken by the students, was not only impressive to the business leaders and University of Birmingham staff around the room, but to the DI Team and CORE City Academy staff who had noticed such a change in their demeanour and confidence since beginning to work with them in September.

Philippa Lewis, Assistant Headteacher at CORE City Academy, said:

“What an inspiring evening. Thank you to Digital Innovators and the University of Birmingham for providing such a wonderful opportunity to some of year 10 students. They left feeling motivated, full of resilience and driven to follow their dreams!“

Kerry Brunn, Project and Events Manager at the University of Birmingham, said:

“Every one of the students appeared to actively engage with a variety of the launch attendees and conducted themselves in a professional manner.

They were an absolute pleasure to have at the event and are a credit to their school, parents and Digital Innovators. We are looking forward to working with these young students and inviting them back to The Exchange very soon.”

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What’s next?

The team have been set the task of preparing a presentation about their experience at The Exchange to share with their fellow students on the DI Skills Programme.

This will include what they were able to learn as a result of attending, and how this will be implemented into their project. Following this, they will continue to work with Digital Innovators on developing their core skills and seizing opportunities to further their knowledge and experience.

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