Orbis Partners hosted a Business Workshop for students taking part in the Young Enterprise Company Programme, a voluntary scheme where student groups create their own company from scratch, helping to build employability and life skills to help students succeed in their future careers.

In the UK there are currently over 15,000 students taking part in the year-long company program competing to win local, regional, and national competitions. Teams start by creating a business plan, selling shares, and fundraising to build enough capital to make their ideas a reality. Once their companies are up and running and their products are ready for sale, teams have the opportunity to sell their goods to the public at a trade-fair where the teams are judged on their journey through the process. Young Enterprise has found that those taking part in the company program are 5% more likely to be in education, employment, or training two years after completing the program.

Managing Directors and Finance Directors from four student companies in Birmingham City centre joined the team at Orbis Partners for a full day of employee-led sessions. Topics included understanding financials, building your business network and effective marketing strategies. Partner James Grenfell ran a session focused around an Orbis case study, explaining real-world examples of a business turnaround, showing students how our work can relate to the challenges the teams may face throughout the program.

The primary aim of the workshop was to give students helpful advice on how to make their company succeed and inspire the students on a personal level. Students heard employees tell the story of their career so far, and gained advice on work experience and dealing with setbacks. In addition, students got to experience work in a corporate environment, an opportunity that many schools are finding increasingly difficult to provide.

Orbis Partners is the first financial institution in Birmingham to support Young Enterprise at a regional level and the workshop is the first of its kind to be offered to young people in Birmingham. The Orbis team were very excited to be a part of helping students fulfil their business’ potential as well as help to shape the next generation of aspiring entrepreneurs.

The finance and marketing sessions helped a lot in understanding the next steps within my school’s company. Very informative and it cleared up a lot of questions I had about moving forward with the company. I hope there are more workshops like these!

Student Feedback, Young Enterprise Company Programme

Young Enterprise is very grateful for the support received from Orbis employees in devising these Business Workshops to support our Company Programme students across Birmingham and South Staffordshire schools. I feel it really brought the best out of students being in an actual corporate environment and networking with different levels and expertise of employees at Orbis – learning more about marketing, finance and networking skills from experts as well as seeing the way forward with their Young Enterprise companies. I very much look forward to working with Orbis again.

Serina Jabbal, Area Manager for Greater Birmingham & South Staffordshire

Young Enterprise is a great organisation that is helping students to gain a wide range of soft skills to aid them in their future careers. The Orbis Team has a range of financial and business skills which would benefit students taking part in the company programme, so we were delighted to organise our Business Workshop and support young and ambitious entrepreneurs within the Birmingham region. We look forward to seeing how these small businesses develop and how we can support Young Enterprise in the future.
James Grenfell, Partner

To find out more about Young Enterprise and how you can support them, click here.

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The statutory directors of Orbis Partners Ltd are Chris Gregory, James Grenfell, Gary Ecob and Shah Zaki.