Weston College Business Enterprise Challenge 2026
Yesterday Alex attended the launch event for the 2026 Weston College Business Enterprise Challenge.
26 groups of students filled the Conference Room to hear a presentation from Ben Melhuish (Head of Business, Travel & Tourism). Included in that presentation was a video on the wonderful work that Weston Hospicecare do. Kirsty Simmons (Partnerships Manager) explained how the Hospice offers care for patients and families alike, for free. Only 20% of the required income comes from Government. The Business Enterprise Challenge raises valuable funds for the charity while helping students develop their entrepreneurial skills.
Alex’s role is, for the second year, acting as a “Industry Mentor” to a group. Alex’s group this year is made of six young men. The team plan to make and sell Halloween, and subsequently, Christmas mystery boxes. The team spent time with Alex explaining their plan. They had mapped out their purchasing, profit margins and reinvestment strategy in their presentation. The Challenge runs from now until the end of 2026.
Groups will be given opportunities to sell their products in Weston’s Sovereign Centre during December. The aim is to raise as much profit as possible from a mere £50.00 initial investment from Amarin Rubber & Plastics.
The team Alex mentored last year suffered some challenges and ended up not completing the Challenge so this year we’re hoping the team do great things. Once we have details, photos and other details of the product we will share them with everyone to enable them to support the team if you would like to.
You can learn more about the amazing work the Hospice do in our local communities here.
We’ll leave the final word to Alex, “The team seem very focussed, all on the same page and have a great idea to utilise two major events (Halloween and Christmas) to maximise their profits. Hopefully I can add some assistance and they can be on the stage at Awards Night come March!”.
