Creating the retail enterpreneurs of the future

Last term’s Senior team: joint Managing Directors Alena Gill and Pavandeep Jhand, Marketing Director Selina Kalyan and her deputy Sam Beard and Financial Director Harpreet Sooch were all recruited from Year 12.

A pioneering project to help ensure the next generation of business men and women don’t repeat the now well-documented mistakes of this one, is well under way at Hastingsbury Business and Enterprise College.
A profit-making shop called the Stationery Cupboard, run for and by pupils and under the watchful eye of office supply experts Staples, is taking the traditional school tuck shop to a new level – helping students understand at first hand, the basics of business.

Staples Head of Marketing Yetunde Ige said: “The idea of the Stationery Cupboard is to give pupils an insight into what it’s like to run a business in the real world.  We’ve given them all the tools and support they need, the school has provided retail knowledge and is giving them ongoing guidance – it’s really up to them to show they can make it work.

“This is the first time we’ve teamed up with a school to help compliment pupils’ learning and understanding of real retail enterprise – it’s been very successful and we’re already looking into taking the concept to other enterprise colleges across the UK to help stir up some entrepreneurial spirit - you never know, we might even uncover a new Philip Green or Anita Roddick!”

The Stationery Cupboard is the first in-school Staples store in the UK. It was set up in February selling Staples products the school team selected, priced, marketed and sold themselves.
Each of the 14 pupils that were initially involved in the venture had to fill out application forms and undergo interviews in front of a panel made up from Hastingsbury teachers and Staples managers.
Sam Baker, Director of Economic Well-being at the 1,000-pupil College in Kempston, Bedfordshire said: “Although the project is in its infancy, it’s developing rapidly to become an integral part of pupil’s studies.
“First hand retail experience on every level is not normally something that’s available to students. Here understanding and having some control over strategy and delivery are both part of the top-level learning process for our better-able students.”

The school has already spotted one pupil as a potential high-flyer and perfect material for Lord Sugar’s hit TV series The Apprentice.
The Stationery Cupboard’s new Operations Manager Daniel Tracy, 15, has quickly risen through the ranks to take charge of operations and marketing, single-handedly increasing revenue.
Sam said: “Daniel’s increased sales and made sure we’ve been able to pay our first two invoices on time. He’s done this through spotting bargains and identifying points of sale beyond the shop itself.  He’s got real potential.”

The Stationery Cupboard is now part of the school’s Young Apprentice Programme.
Pupils on this programme spend one day a week studying and over the course of the academic year, get 50 hours of work-related experience.
Sam added: “The Stationery Cupboard gives us the opportunity to look at retail issues including marketing and recruitment and test first hand how these things can affect profitability.”

The Young Apprentice Programme is run as a consortium and pupils from other schools can join the course – this time pupils from nearby John Bunyan and Sandy Upper Schools join the weekly lessons.

The programme is the school’s first step towards its long-term vision of becoming a Retail Academy. 

www.staplesforbusiness.co.uk