Young Enterprise is a fantastic opportunity for the young people at Hillingdon Manor to get a taste of the world of work and the excitement of running a business.
Starting with a small cash investment from the school the Young Enterprise Group are required to generate a profit from a business they set up, run and administer themselves. The project has been running for some years at HMS.
The first money spinner was a fantastic little book called “My Teacher looks like a Bowling Ball”, this was a guide for young people with autism but which helped others understand the special way of looking at the world people with ASCs have, and some of the things they say which may sometimes sound funny, insightful or well, just plain rude! With sales across the world the book soon sold out of its first edition and went into a second, which has since sold out too.
Since the early days, Young Enterprise has gone from strength to strength, with projects as diverse as homemade ice cream, beautiful Christmas decorations, produced by our Woodwork Department and the ever popular Tuck Shop. The Tuck Shop is open daily and offers a wide range of sweets and healthy alternative snacks to the whole school community, the Tusk Shop will be going to Crest Fest this month to introduce their wares to the rest of the Outcome First Group.
Some Young Enterprise projects are for charity, such as the keyrings they produced for the National Heart Foundation annual appeal, others are purely for profit which is ploughed back into the group. The next major project is the release of a DVD about autism, which the Young Entrepreneurs will be selling to inform the wider world about the lives of young people with autism.
Lillith Osborn
Assistant Head Teacher, Hillingdon Manor School