Lauriston Lights’ mission is a simple one. They want to help their students to build their confidence and prosper, both through their secondary school education and into their future career paths.
By attending summer camps, which have been running for the last 3 years, students come together to learn both hard and soft skills through programmes such as Philosophy for Children (P4C), debating, and career advisory one-to-one sessions.
Students are also able to access mentor support through university students who help to inspire children through exercises, workshops, role-plays and competitions.
One such competition was the Dragon’s Den.
After an intensive marketing workshop in the morning, the students were given a few raw materials and were asked to come up with a concept for a new product or service and prepare a well-researched pitch to present to the Dragons.
They were trained on the concept of a pitch and various aspects of funding and marketing strategy; hoping to gain investment from the Dragons for their idea.
GetSet London’s Marketing Assistant, Jyotsna Bhargav was one such Dragon, alongside representatives from various reputable law firms, banking institutions and independent start-ups in East London.
As part of the judging process, the students were assessed on how they mastered three crucial skills; best pitch, best marketing strategy and best overall product strategy.
Six teams, with an average of five highly creative students, presented to the Dragons with a variety of business concepts; including solar panels, smart wifi devices, automatic electronic trash bins, environmentally friendly tourist packs and state-of-the-art toys - all with financial calculations for 15-20 per cent equity and with creative marketing and communication strategies in place.
The students clearly applied what they had learned as they tackled questions with the utmost professionalism.
As a Social Enterprise/ CIC in East London, Laureston Lights was established to support and bring together high-ability students aged 11-13 years from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
These students are encouraged to take part in these summer camps, organised by the charity, to develop and hone their educational and soft skills.
“It was such an exciting and inspiring day.” says Jyotsna, “To see these students full of creativity and harnessing theirentrepreneurial flair, whilst gaining valuable input and insights, was fantastic. You can’t underestimate the importance of theseexperiences for the future business owners of East London and I was delighted to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.”
GetSet for Growth London and Lauriston lights will continue to work together to look at avenues to help with similar initiatives, whilst also supporting the team with their own marketing and finance; helping them to develop their offering and attract additional support for the programme.
To know more about what Lauriston Lights does, and to get involved, please visit: http://lauristonlights.com/index.html.
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