Students at Preston’s College have developed and pitched business concepts to a local social enterprise at a Dragons-Den style event.

The first year Level 2 Business students at the college were invited by the Education Business Partnership (NW Communities) to present their ideas to launch its non-profit Community Interest Company (CIC).

The students proposed creative ideas for the CIC including a logo, social media, a website and drawing up the total expenditure for their plans.

In a formal presentation, which took place inside one of the College’s lecture theatres, the students pitched their ideas to a panel of CIC’s directors in a Dragon-Dens style scenario.

After much deliberation, the panel chose a winning team and awarded them with gifted shopping vouchers, as well as using their logo design to lead the CIC’s branding.

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Every participant in the project will now receive a reference on their CV’s to acknowledge their participation in the event.

Emma Won, co-founder at CIC, said: “We work in partnership with communities and local groups to help people, in particular young people, to improve their employment prospects through joint projects.

“We were thrilled to work with Preston’s College and put into practice what we preach, taking the role of an employer and helping young people gain experience.

“I hope it has gone some way in raising their aspirations and giving them a taste of the world of work through a positive employer encounter.

“The project brought great value to both parties as we were so impressed with the effort and professionalism of the students’ proposals that we are now planning to use one of the students’ design’s for the CIC’s logo.”

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Kamran Ahmed, programme leader at Preston’s College, said: “We’re keen to deliver real work environment learning at Preston’s College to ensure our students are work-ready employees upon graduation.

“It was exciting to engage our first year students with a case study that helped them think with a business head in a realistic environment.

“I’m extremely pleased with student’s output, creative ideas and the excellent feedback we had from the client.”

Do you go to Preston’s College? What do you think about the Dragons-Den style event? Let us know in the comments below