NORTH WALSHAM STUDENTS TACKLE REAL-WORLD ISSUES IN TOURISM ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE DAY

137 Year 9 students at North Walsham High School found out about one of Norfolk’s most important industries in a very hands-on way – with a Tourism Enterprise Challenge Day held at the school.

Nine mentors from real businesses in the sector took part in the day to help the students with the challenge, which involved developing a tourism business to attract visitors to the region.

Students were asked to consider the business challenges, focussing on the customers’ needs, writing marketing plans, and using maths skills to calculate viability and profitability.  Just as a real business would have to, they also had to take into account other factors, such as environmental impact.

Working in groups, the students prepared presentations which were then made to all of the mentors in a Dragons’ Den style format – enabling both the creativity of the ideas and the real-life viability of the concepts to be tested.

Winners of the challenge were ‘Skyline Resorts’, comprising Teagen Burr, Kyran Turner, James Vann, Keita Vilka, Summer Waugh and Hannah West.

“It is really important that students are able to engage with the outside world and understand the kinds of challenges that they will face when they leave education and enter the world of work,” said NWHS teacher Nicole Honey, who co-ordinated the event.

“There were some really creative ideas planned in a mature and sensible manner - I think everyone really took something from the day, and learnt new skills that they can use in the future.  The mentors commented on how driven the year group was.”

The day was organised by Inspired Youth, a Norfolk-based project which specialises in engaging enterprise with education.