Smart students at Wadebridge School

19th January, 2010

I’m very impressed with the students at Wadebridge School!  I’ve just finished a Skype video conference with them, giving advice on how to apply market research to their business enterprises.

One group is looking to design and sell tee shirts, the other group had an answer to headphones that tangle!

I’ve done these advice clinics a few times now for the Education Business Partnership Cornwall team and the whole experience is always rewarding.  I’m never ceased to be amazed at how creative, thoughtful, and accepting of advice these students are.  It’s always rewarding because it’s a real test on how well I can talk my subject in plain English!

There was something about these groups today that led me to believe there were some smart cookies in this class.  Maybe the school’s status as a specialist Business and Enterprise College is paying dividends.

As far as I’m concerned, when people are engaged in learning there’s no such thing as a bad question. I’m used to the questions like, “how do you do market research?” and “how many questions should there be on the questionnaire?”  Of course, nearly every answer begins with … it depends.

Today the kids were thinking about their market, about qualifying it, about the competition, about how to identify the niche, about how they could measure success, about their budgets and value-for-money methodology.  We were talking benefits – not the process.

I’m doing another of these clinics tomorrow. Can’t wait!