Entrepreneurs team up with Thrive to win Dragon’s Apprentice

Budding entrepreneurs from a Hertfordshire school teamed up with local housing association Thrive Homes to win the Dragon’s Apprentice Challenge. Team Endeavour, a group of eight students from Parmiter’s School in Garston, were supported by Thrive during the competition to develop young people’s business skills. Their success scooped them five of the challenge’s nine awards – Overall Winning Team, Most Innovative Business Idea, Best Business Plan, Most Money Raised and Best Partner Charity. Through their business ideas, the team raised just over £5,415 for local charity Playskill, a playgroup for children with special physical needs. The competition, run by Watford & Three Rivers Trust, challenges young people to set up and run their own business, turning £100 into at least £1,000 for their designated charity. Thrive Homes provided the initial £100, then mentored and coached the students throughout the business process. Daryl Pereira, Community Partnership Officer at Thrive, supported them through weekly meetings with their initial brainstorming of ideas, drawing up a business plan, delivering results, drafting their final report and giving a presentation to the competition judges. The team organised and ran a host of activities to raise the money, including cake sales, a quiz night, disco, supermarket bag packing event, a school ‘woolly jumper day’ and selling branded ‘hoodies’ to fellow students to wear on school trips abroad. Daryl said: “It was a great experience for all of us and I am delighted our students did so well in the challenge overall. For more on this read the next edition of My Garston News out on May 8.