A TRAINEE teacher at a Feltham school has got pupils involved in an exciting business project that sees them make a mini enterprise with just £10.
Usman Malik, who is on a placement at Feltham Hill Junior School, has enrolled 10 Year 5 pupils into the national scheme, Make Your Mark with a Tenner, founded by 'tenner tycoon' Oli Barrett.
Mr Barrett, described by the media as 'the most connected man in Britain', started the scheme, which has seen more than 50,000 school pupils across the country put their entrepreneurial skills to the test.
Mr Malik said: "I saw this in the news, and I thought it would be great for the school because I think that business is the primary thing to drive our economy out of the current situation.
"I went to the school management and asked them to clear it, which they did. I thought something like this would really inspire the kids."
Mr Barrett visited the school on Wednesday March 23, as part of his UK tour as ambassador of the scheme, which is backed by Dragons' Den entrepreneur Peter Jones. He gave a talk to the children.
Each participant is given a £10 loan to enable them to set up their own enterprise.
The Feltham Hill pupils were inspired by the talk, and have already come up with a host of exciting ideas from buying and preparing fruit to sell at school, and washing cars.
They have until March 31 to present their business ventures, and are expected to go into some detail about their plans and results. The school will then be entered into the national competition to see how they fare against hundreds of other children.
As well as buying and selling items, the children are also expected to 'market' their businesses, from word of mouth to posters and other methods.
Mr Malik said: "They are leaning so many wonderful skills from how to run a business to making money, looking at what is going in and what is coming out, and getting the word out there.
"It would be great if other schools in the borough could get involved with the project too. The great thing is that they are in an environment where they can take a risk, and really learn."
A spokesman for the scheme said: "The competition is being driven by Enterprise UK in order to develop enterprise skills in young people and inspire the next-generation of entrepreneurs who will deliver David Cameron’s vision of the UK’s 'most entrepreneurial decade'."
