Local students in business project

manufacture an educational toy to help community

A group of 16- and 17-year old students from local school Tiffin Girls’ including girls from Putney, are taking part in the national business scheme, Young Enterprise.

The aim is to form a real company for one year, create and sell a product and in doing so, learn about production, finance and marketing. This worthwhile scheme which is sponsored by HSBC among others, has enabled the team to start up their company, Opus.

They have designed and commissioned an educational tool, the Mag-it ©, as their product. The device is a stylish blend of wood, metal and perspex. The aim of the activity is to broaden one’s mind by using specially designed magnets to pinpoint the location of, for example, capital cities on a world map or to learn simple French words. Once the child has finished positioning the magnets, they can turn the educational sheet over to reveal the answers, and, as the magnets will remain on the perspex within the frame, it is simple to check and learn answers. Each laminated A3 sheet has been specially designed, printed and laminated for durability. Every set comprises six sheets of different topics, however, these can be made to order to suit the customer’s needs, for example, with an emphasis on the national curriculum, spelling or even Welsh, they have already had one order!. Although they believe the product is suitable for 5-11 year olds, their exerience has shown that anyone can benefit.

The Mag-iT © which sells for £24, can be bought through their website or directly at local Young Enterprise and craft fairs throughout the year. They are currently meeting with headteachers from local schools to enable the schools to buy the product in bulk (at only £15 a unit) and promote the product to their pupils.

They have established business relationships with the local community, only last month a number of companies paid to be advertised on their specially designed flyers. The flyers were professionally printed on 6000 sheets of A5 and delivered to residential areas such as St Margaret’s, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston, Surbiton, Putney and Barnes.

Their aim is to represent this borough at the regional and finally national finals for the highly prestigious Young Enterprise award.

March 28, 2006