Rotherham Ready
At the heart of Rotherham Ready’s inspiring range of activities for children and young people lies a powerful belief, one neatly summed up in the following quote from their website: "Not everyone will become an entrepreneur, but everyone will need to become enterprising."
Rotherham Ready – The Rotherham Children and Young People’s Enterprise Project – is an innovative organisation that aims to develop enterprise skills in everyone in Rotherham aged between four and nineteen. The emphasis lies firmly on participants developing a robust and enquiring attitude through the acquisition of transferable skills; skills that will be of use in any number of chosen careers. The benefits of this kind of aspirational thinking and focused activity are sure to spread throughout the entire community.
Raising a generation of enterprising individuals
The Enterprise Pathway Programme – part of the overall Rotherham Ready project – is linking local 14 – 19 year olds with successful businesses and individuals by organising hands-on work experience and a series of workshops. The idea is to give the young people involved a better understanding of how to get successful ventures off the ground.
The workshops will provide ample opportunity for the young people to question business people and other high-achieving individuals taking part about the particular strategies they employed, what risks were taken, and what the outcomes have been.
This programme of experiential learning will enable all those taking part to work towards gaining an NCFE accredited Level 2 qualification in enterprise skills.
What do actors, climbing walls and comedians have in common?
They all feature in the six workshops lined up by the Enterprise Pathway project co-ordinators.
The workshop programme kicked off with a visit to Magna, the UK’s first Science and Adventure Park. The young people taking part came from four different schools Maltby Comprehensive, Wales High School, Wingfield Comprehensive and Thrybergh Comprehensive to enjoy a tour of the corporate facilities and a presentation by the Park’s commercial manager.
Panni Loh, Rotherham Ready’s Enterprise Projects Co-ordinator was happy with the way the day unfolded. “I am extremely pleased with the start of the Enterprise Pathway,” she says, “all the students seem very keen to develop their enterprise capabilities and increase their confidence. By lunchtime every single one had stood up and spoken to the group.”
Upcoming workshops include presentation skills sessions delivered by an actor and comedian; a day at the Climbing Works in Sheffield where students will be faced with the physical challenge of bouldering before hearing the story behind the success of manufacturing company SlapHolds; and a T-shirt design project that takes social enterprise and ethical issues into account. A two-day trip to London is also planned, during which the young people will visit the Stock Exchange, House of Commons and London Eye.