Business & Economics

Cowgills Future Stars

Two Bolton School Sixth Form students are set to become ‘Cowgills Future Stars’! Olivia Maguire and Rishi Narla, both in Year 12, have been selected to join this work experience programme for Bolton School students. The ‘Cowgills Future Stars’ programme offers an in-depth insight into the world of business and finance. The placement runs for between three and four weeks during the school holidays, and the pair of successful applicants have the opportunity to attend meetings, complete project work and shadow senior managers. They spend time in each department, gaining valuable experience of audit, tax, business recovery, wealth management, corporate finance and support services and marketing. The ‘Cowgills Future Stars’ programme was established for Bolton School Sixth Form students in 2015.

Future Entrepreneurs

The Parents’ Association Future Entrepreneurs competition challenged Year 9 girls to come up with a mindfulness product, which they pitched to a team of professionals following an intensive day of research, focus groups and planning.

Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise offers girls in Year 10 the opportunity to start up their own company with a group of their peers. It allows girls to learn vital skills such as teamwork, communication, problem solving and resilience as well as increasing confidence. The Girls’ Division team this year was Bee Bright. Their product was a personal A3 whiteboard revision timetable, with the aim of helping students organise their school and home life in a sustainable manner.

The team said:

“When working in your team you make so many new friends and it is such a positive environment, there are so many sections such as social media, finance, product design, sales and so much more, so no matter where your interests lie there is always a role which fits you. “Outside of our weekly sessions we have had such amazing opportunities. For example, we had the chance to set up two stalls at the Bonfire Night earlier this year. This allowed us to develop our sales skills and we raised just over £210 to put towards our company. “We also had the opportunity for a team of four to go to the Trafford Centre to take part in the North West Trade Fair, where we got to see other students’ companies and their products, and talk to some of the founders of Young Enterprise. We also took this opportunity publicise our company and branch out our social media presence by creating a vlog, which appeared in the school newspaper.” The girls made the most of market research and Dragon’s Den pitching experiences with industry professionals to gain feedback and tweak their plans. At the Bolton and Wigan Showcase in March, the team presented their company and product to a panel of judges. The twentystrong team set up a trade stand, produced a business report, attended a team interview with the judging panel, and presented Bee Bright to the judges. The team performed very well on all of the criteria and won the ‘Best Customer Service’ award.

Bee Bright also qualified for the next round of the Young Enterprise competition and participated in the Greater Manchester Final, held at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School at the end of April. Despite a strong performance, the team did not progress to the North West Finals, but we congratulate them on their efforts.