Entrepreneur, investor and BBC The Apprentice interviewer Linda Plant is teaming up with Stratford-upon-Avon College and Solihull College & University Centre to launch a new pilot designed to turn vocational talent into the small businesses of tomorrow.
The Linda Plant Business Challenge will invite students from across Stratford-upon-Avon College and partner Solihull College & University Centre to compete for just 20 places on an intensive entrepreneurial programme.
Applicants will be challenged from the outset to show why they should be selected, including submitting a short video answering the question: “Can you convince Linda Plant?”
The successful 20 will take part in four weekly workshops beginning in November, working in multidisciplinary teams to develop business ideas, speak to customers, test their thinking and build the commercial skills and confidence needed to take an idea into the real world.
At the end of the Challenge, three finalists will be selected to present their business plans to Linda Plant and a panel of local business leaders, who will choose the winner of the inaugural Linda Plant Business Challenge.
Linda Plant comments: “Some of Britain’s most exciting future business owners may already be sitting in our vocational college classrooms. They are learning real skills – hairdressing, engineering, mechanics, construction, hospitality, beauty, digital and creative skills – but I want them to think beyond getting a job and ask: could I build the business that creates the jobs? That is what this challenge is about. We are looking for potential, ambition and ideas – and I’m looking forward to seeing what Stratford and Solihull’s students can do.”
James Ralph, Head of School for Business, Solihull College & University Centre/Stratford-upon-Avon College, comments: “Vocational colleges have an important role to play in the future of Britain’s small business economy. Our students are developing practical skills every day that have genuine commercial value, and we want them to see entrepreneurship and business ownership as a realistic option for their future. We are the first pilot of the Linda Plant Business Challenge, and we are excited to see 20 students take that journey from vocational skill and initial idea through to three finalists presenting their businesses to Linda and our local business community.”
Programme Director, Fi Yates, added: “Britain’s colleges already teach the skills on which thousands of successful small businesses are built. What happens when we add entrepreneurial thinking, commercial confidence and the belief that these young people can become employers as well as employees? This pilot is about finding out – and creating a model that could help build Britain’s next generation of small business owners.”
