Speed You UP Business Pop Up event at Future Skills Bordon

Since November 2021, Adriana Crear has been delivering the Speed You Up Entrepreneur Programme to almost 30 young construction students aged 17-22 at the Future Skills Training Centre in Bordon.

The £4 million facility which was opened in 2017 is managed by Head of Construction Steve Gilder and offers a range of construction courses preparing learners for their future careers. Adriana explains that there is an expert team that supports the students:

“Most of the learners specialise in carpentry and attend classes in the workshop run by Mark MacDonald. They also attend additional maths classes run by Sarah Daniels who also overlooks retention and progression. She has been facilitating the Speed You Up programme at the centre and together we prepared this Pop-Up event. “

Speed You Up offered seven sessions to the students which included topics such as:

entrepreneurship
skills needed in self-employment
communication
customer relations

In addition, during the sessions, the learners worked on business planning which also included coming up with the names of their companies and logos.

In total, the learners created seven businesses Pop-Ups which were displayed during the Business Pop Up event. One of the Pop-Up businesses has already registered as a sole trader company and has regular customers. The event was attended by Carolyn Jay, TCS Project Coordinator (Lead) of Hampshire Futures, a Hampshire County Council initiative, as well as virtually by Enterprise Specialists from Inspiring Enterprise Lizzie Raffles and Susan Reviere.

Three companies have also been involved in the Pop-Up event by offering work experience to the students. These include two construction companies T.A.T.A. Property Maintenance and Frogski & Marcin as well as vehicle breakdown and recovery company Rhino Recovery LTD which is based in the Aldershot Enterprise Centre and is the Speed You Up ambassador – an important role model for the learners.

Adriana was very impressed with her students’ exhibits,

“The event was attended by almost all Future Skills Speed You Up Participants and was held in the workshop where learners displayed their truly impressive work: benches, garden benches with integrated tables and wooden picture frames. “

Future Skills students have also been heavily involved in the local community project at The Club 94 in Bordon where they have renovated the building as well as community work at the Centre itself. Some of the benches made by the students will be used by those who attend the Centre.

Adriana was delighted with how hard the students worked and the event itself,

“Thank you very much to all learner as well as internal and external stakeholders for taking part in the Future Skills Business Pop Up. We hope that the learners will be able to persevere with their business and that the Speed You Up will contribute to the success in their future employment and self-employment.”