A group of ambitious Warlingham Sixth Form students recently became one of the top five companies in the 2021 Young Enterprise campaign.
Frankie Gaudoin, Shayan Patel, Ewan Lewis, Romy Maleki, Suneet Bakshi and team leader Matthew Woodgate formed U-Mod during their Young Enterprise enrichment activity, which they undertook as part of the sixth form's Advance Award. This programme is designed to encourage students to develop vital skills during their time at the college.
Young Enterprise is a national scheme aimed at business-orientated A-level students. To give them an understanding of entrepreneurship, they are asked to create and run a business, hopefully generating a profit.
The group set out a business plan for creating customisable stainless steel water bottles, which they submitted to, and had approved by, the Peter Jones Foundation. They used their enrichment periods, and their own free time, for research, creating the water bottles and delivering the product to their customers.
Frankie explained why they focused on a water bottle:
"We wanted to create a product that would help the environment, and decided on water bottles. Once you purchase a U-Mod bottle, you will never need a single-use bottle again, thus no longer polluting the environment with wasteful plastics.’
U-Mod priced their bottle at £9.99, selling out their stock – 50 bottles overall – in just two weeks. They made an overall profit of £191.51, with their proceeds going to their chosen charity, WaterAid, and the team becoming one of the top five Young Enterprise teams in the scheme, which ran nationwide.
