Business Students Enter The Dragons Den
Derby College Group (DCG) recently hosted a Dragon’s Den style event for around 150 Business students to present their plans for a new product.
Marresa director Nikki Johnson was part of a five-strong panel of judges alongside Sarah Smith, Bettina Crofts and Marcus Gayle from the College and Merv Sheldon who runs Bridesfayre.
They heard presentations from 31 groups of students who had spent four weeks working with guest speakers, including Nikki Johnson, developing ideas for a product aimed at children and young people.
The ideas pitched included ‘Create and Skate’ - an environmentally friendly skateboard kit which customers would be able to design, paint and customize; ‘Lil Einstein’ – an educational app aimed at three to ten-year-olds; and a braille alphabet activity game aimed at children with visual impairments; a car play mat and sensory activity packs for children with special educational needs.
Derby College Business team manager Lorna Edwards said: “This has been an amazing opportunity for students to develop their entrepreneurial, teamwork and employability skills- bringing together all the different elements that they have studied into a real-life situation.
“Over the year, the students have shown a great deal of resilience and this has been a fantastic way to end the academic year. All Business students embraced this challenge with enthusiasm, worked exceptionally hard, acted on feedback, had a lot of fun and executed their pitch. The Business staff are so proud of all our students”
“We hope that at least one of their ideas will come to fruition and be launched as a product by Marresa who have been a huge inspiration to the students throughout this process.”
Nikki Johnson, director of Derby-based toy and gift manufacturer and wholesaler Marresa continued: “It was great to see so many different, well-thought-out ideas, backed up by strong presentations covering many business areas.
“Current topics such as mental health and environmental awareness were well explored and integrated into both traditional and ‘out of the box’ concepts. No two presentations were the same and everyone involved should be proud of what they have delivered.”
And DCG work experience officer Bettina Crofts, who organised the event, concluded: “Everyone was totally blown away by the quality, content and professionalism and not to mention the inspiring ideas. Every single student who took part in this project showed great commitment and dedication, they all should be proud of their achievements.”
More News From Amber Valley Info
| DFRS welcomes the latest trainee Firefighters Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service has welcomed 12 new wholetime trainee Firefighters and 11 new On-Call trainee Firefighters to the Serv read more | |
| Derbyshire Highly Commended In National Awards For Covid Response Derbyshire County Council has been highly commended in a national award for its outstanding response to the Covid-1 read more | |
| Stepping It Up In The Fight Against Climate Change Recycle more and recycle better is the message for the 18th annual Recycle Week which starts on Monday 20 September, and Derbyshir read more | |
| Police Concerns for missing woman Melissa Jones Melissa was reported missing on Monday 13 September and it is believed she may be in the Ripley or Kilburn areas. read more | |
| Police and Crime Commissioner secures nearly £660K to reduce domestic abuse Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster has secured nearly £660k from the Home read more | |
The Amber Valley Info Noticeboard
| Old Fire Station, Heanor - Blood Clinic Due to a global shortage of blood tubes we have been asked to cancel all of our clinics until the 17 September 2021. read more | |
| Grow Outside CIC New Project Sessions are all based around the 5 ways to wellbeing including be active and could include activities such as: gentle gardening jobs, mindful walking, read more | |
| Get searching for those elastic bands in your home and workplace! Great idea by Royal Mail! Royal Mail are encouraging you to post any unwanted elastic bands in their post boxes! T read more | |
| Free Sports Activities For Children Who Live In The Ripley Township Ripley Town Council has teamed up with Sporting Communities to bring a week of FREE activities for the younger pe read more | |
| Ripley Wool Bombing Is Back Wool Bombs will be on display from Sunday 22nd August to Sunday 12th September 2021. read more | |
