Six students from Eastleigh College recently visited The Bee’s Nest, a start-up business investment programme run by Incuhive, to present their business ideas to a panel of potential investors. Inuchive offers start-up businesses access to office space, mentoring services and investment, and were eager to hear the ideas from the students.
The students had been working on their pitches for over a month before going to Incuhive, and were excited to see what the investors thought of their business plans. Bethan and Zuliza, both studying Travel and Tourism, teamed up with Applied Science student Molly to design a method to combat drink spiking in night clubs.
Professional Catering student Katie plans to open her own bakery in the future, and was pleased with the reaction from the Incuhive investors “I learnt a lot from them in terms of business planning, and they’ve offered to help mentor me to get my business up and running.”
Enterprise Skills students Rowyn and Kaitlin come up with a business idea for an eco-friendly bath bomb company. Commenting on their pitch, they said, “We want to put back into the community. We’d work with charities, give broken bath bombs to homeless shelters, and only use recycled cardboard in our packaging.
“We learnt how to present effectively, by speaking slowly and clearly and standing up straight and not crossing our arms.”
Both Rowyn and Kaitlin have been offered work experience at Incuhive, with the opportunity to develop their business idea even further. They’ve already completed one day, which they really enjoyed: “It was so much fun. We were helping launch a photobooth company, which involved doing market research into consumers and competitors.”
Steven Northam, Director and Mentor at Incuhive, shares his thoughts on working with young entrepreneurs: “The business leaders and entrepreneurs of the future are no doubt hidden away within the college environment, and with our support we can help them accelerate towards their goals.
“The passion and determination of the students we have worked with has been fantastic, and we were blown away with the pitches they put together. No doubt these students will go on to great things!”
Eastleigh College’s partnership with Incuhive provides incredible opportunities for students to develop their ideas, and become influencers of the future!
To find out more about Incuhive, please visit www.incuhive.co.uk and www.thebeesnest.co.uk.
We are delighted to have been recognised by The Times Education Awards for the support we provide to students who need to re-sit their GCSEs after leaving school. The excellent results our students achieved last summer include more than twice the national average gaining a maths GCSE, testament to the dedicated team of teachers who use innovative approaches and techniques to inspire our learners.
Young chefs and hospitality students from Eastleigh College were joined by other competitors from training providers across the south to take part in the southern regional heat of an established national competition. The Major Series 2020, which is organised by Major International in conjunction with the Craft Guild of Chefs, saw 50 competitors take over Eastleigh College's three professional kitchens and East Avenue restaurant and work their culinary majic across ten different classes from 'afternoon tea' to 'street food'.