Writes Sue Grice, Head of Careers
The day began with a palpable buzz in the Great Hall as the boys gathered to undertake their Divions Enterprise Challenge Day. This event is a core element of our careers education programme as we recognise the value of giving pupils the opportunity to step away from their academic studies and work in small groups on a work-based challenge set by a well-known company.
This year’s challenge was part of the National Careers Challenge programme run by The Inspiration Learning Group (TILG) in partnership with NatWest Thrive. Each challenge is designed in response to the sponsor’s real, business-critical needs, in this case, Gymshark, a billion-dollar fitness clothing company, who required a concept for a campaign they could launch to promote sustainability.
In a fast paced, busy day, pupils working in small teams were led through a series of tasks by skilled facilitators from TILG. This started with a briefing on the challenge covering both Gymshark and the nature of a circular economy, identifying a team leader and mind mapping ideas before profiling a target customer for their campaign.
Over the course of the day, they came up with designs for a full new product range that utilises recycled materials – one team even had the idea to expand the market by including a Babygro range! They identified a charity, celebrity or influencer to support their marketing, planned a campaign launch and created brand assets to support it. The day ended with each team making their pitch to a panel of judges who unanimously agreed the standard was extremely high showcasing our pupils’ ability to apply outstanding thinking to such challenges. Three winning teams were selected and awarded the traditional tub of chocolates.
Everyone benefited from the day. In addition to developing their employability skills by working on real business challenges, they were able to incorporate learning from many of their GCSE subjects to complete the tasks. They learned about many aspects of the fitness industry from marketing, designing, engineering and sustainability to law, management and overall entrepreneurship.
Whether they designed the logo, wrote the presentation script, considered details of how their plan could be implemented, presented the pitch or organised the team’s tasks, about half of students said the day has made them think about careers they might like to explore further.
We also have a new event for 2026, the Merchant Taylors’ Entrepreneurship Convention, at school on the evening of March 17th. If you are an entrepreneur with an interesting story to tell, or if you invest in start-ups and would be willing to give a short presentation or talk informally with pupils and parents in a “marketplace” at this event, please contact us at Careers@mtsn.org.uk.
