Learning business skills is more than just class lessons for a trio of Monifieth High School pupils.
Eilan Page, Ben Bowman and Lewis Hammond are among hundreds of youngsters to go that step further and create their own company for Young Enterprise Scotland.
Taking part in the annual challenge, the threesome launched Atlas Creations, selling arts and crafts products for children.
On Thursday, they will go up against peers from other Tayside schools in the Young Enterprise Scotland Tayside final at Forbes of Kingennie.
Young Enterprise Scotland challenges teenagers to run their own businesses, making and marketing products.
The scheme has been credited by Dundee tech entrepreneur and past participant Chris van der Kuyl as a “lightbulb moment” for him.
Monifieth High Young Enterprise team
We went along to meet the Monifieth High Young Enterprise team to find out more about their business venture.
S6 pupils Eilan, Ben and and Lewis are all fans of BBC One’s Dragons’ Den and similar TV shows and wanted to give the scheme a go – Eilan for a second time.
Eilan said: “We all love business and Young Enterprise is a great organisation.”
The boys took on roles – Eilan managing director, Ben finance director and Lewis was in charge of sales and marketing.
Knowing mental health is a big issue for children and young people, they spoke to local mental health counsellors and learned that problems can begin from the age of five.
They hit upon the idea of creating arts and crafts products for children aged 5 to 9, to divert them from technology and social media use, which can exacerbate issues at a later age.
Lewis explained: “Once we settled on the idea of arts and crafts we did a survey of teachers who have kids in that age range, and we got a lot of good information from that.”
The boys secured investment from shareholders then sourced and ordered stock.
Their product was sold at the school Christmas fair and a Young Enterprise Scotland trade fair in the Overgate Shopping Centre – and Lewis said sales went “swimmingly”!
Once shareholders were paid, they were left with £60 profit and, more importantly, real life experience of running a business.
It’s a much more realistic experience.”
Business teacher Jennifer Wilson
Ben said: “We surprised ourselves at how confident we can be, speaking to people we wouldn’t normally.
“We had a lot of problems we had to solve quickly and had to develop the ability to make decisions quickly and plan ahead.”
While the trio were entirely responsible for running Atlas Creations, business teacher Jennifer Wilson was there to advise and support.
Jennifer said: “Young Enterprise is really good for pupils, to develop the skills they need going forward like communication skills and learning how to speak to the public.”
Knowledge gained in the classroom is put into practice, she said.
“They are completely in charge of everything, from finances to ordering stock.
“It’s a much more realistic experience than they would generally get.”
Conversation