S@S Accelerate Programme

I have just completed a week working as a Mentor on the Business & Enterprise challenge at the S@S Accelerate at Strathclyde University. Having worked as a mentor a couple of years ago during my teacher training, it was something I wasn't sure about going back to as it is a more relaxed atmosphere than in the classroom - first name terms with the young people etc. However, despite my initial misgivings, the week was a great success. The challenges are aimed at pupils completing S4 & S5 and aims to give them an insight into University life and a taste of the career path they may have identified for themselves. There are a number of challenges other than Business, including Law, Engineering, Science, Education and Sport.

Day 1 began with the usual icebreakers to get the young people interacting as quickly as possible and was followed up by 'micro-challenges" - short 10 minute activities to encourage them to work together. The rest of the day then introduced them to the main focus of the week - a business challenge and debating. 

Business Challenge

• First of all the team were asked to design a team charter which covered their values as a team, how they would work together, how they would resolve conflict etc.
  
• They were then given the Summer Island Challenge - the develop a part of an island. 
  
• On the second day, the team looked at target markets and then were issued with the target market they would be appealing to. They were also allocated their part of the island at this stage.
  
• Members of each team were then involved in negotiating to get additional funding and benefits for their part of the island. Each team were given a list of priorities and they found this part very challenging - it wasn't about winning or losing but about getting the best deal. 
  
• The teams split into functional departments at this stage - Marketing, Finance, Sales and Product Development - with each department having a major role in the success of the overall challenge. 
  
• On the third day, the teams were broken up into their functional departments and worked on how they could ensure their part of the island was developed. 
  
• The teams brought together all their ideas and started to prepare the final pitch for delivery.
  
• On the final day, the teams had to deliver their pitch to a panel of four industry experts. The teams all presented in full business dress with the sales members delivering the pitch and the rest of the team available to answer any specific questions. 
  

Debate

• Initially the teams were introduced to the rules of debating. 
  
• We followed this up by having a debate on the pros and cons of people under 19 being compelled to do 50 hours community service.
  
• 2 members of the business challenge were then chosen and given time to prepare their argument that Business was the most important of the challenges taking place that week. 
  
• The final debate was held in the Debating Chamber at Strathclyde University. 
  

The young people also spent Wednesday afternoon in a Career & Industry afternoon where a range of people spoke about the respective challenges and the young people had the opportunity to ask questions.

The week finished with an awards ceremony in the Crawfurd Theatre at Jordanhill. All the pupils seemed to take a great amount from the week and the first S@S Accelerate programme was a great success.