Wenta, in its capacity as the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire agent for Shell Step, last week held the local area awards for participants.  Out of students representing 25 host companies, 31 were competing for the title of ‘Most Enterprising Student’.  The event took place at the Business & Technology Centre in Stevenage and was sponsored by both the University of Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire Council.  Both the winner and runner-up go on to battle for the title within the Eastern Region and if successful, will progress to the National Finals in Bedford. 

Shell Step is a national scheme that every year places hundreds of highly motivated students with small and medium-sized firms throughout the UK to undertake business projects during their summer breaks.  The programme gives businesses the opportunity to add significant value to their bottom line. In 2009 a quarter of students added more £300k worth of value to their host company’s business. Projects are tailored to companies’ specific needs, so can help small businesses to plug their skills gaps.

For the university students that participate the programme offers them the opportunity to experience the 'real world' outside of their studies.  This year's students came from a diverse range of higher education courses, ranging from Accounting, Electronics, Politics and Maths to Graphic Design Computer Science and Design and Illustration.  At the end of their projects they were each assessed by an independent panel of judges, and were rated on a number of criteria including a written report, a verbal presentation and an appraisal from their employer. Special emphasis is given within the Shell Step programme to personal development and to the advancement of technology within the workplace.  13 organisations across Hertfordshire took advantage of this invaluable scheme.  Projects varied considerably from marketing and database development to and website development. 

For the first year we had joint winners for the ‘Most Enterprising Student’.  Each of their projects were very different but the judges could not decide between the two.  The first of these was Arbi Phelps, a Politics student from Warwick University.  Arbi was placed at The Wendy House Day Care Nursery Ltd based in Royston.  His project involved extensive market research, with the intention to open another Nursery.   Commenting on their student, Jacquie Ellison, Managing Director said, 'We have been extremely impressed with Arbi. He has made a huge contribution to our business. His market research identified the need, and potential customers, in an area where we will now, hopefully, go on to open a second day care nursery, which could potentially double our current profit. Along with this, due to the detailed and thorough nature of Arbi's research, it also identified areas in the current business that needed changing or improving on. As a result of this, we have implemented changes he recommended which has resulted in a direct increase in the take-up rate of child places within the current Nursery. The Shell Step Project has been an extremely worthwhile and positive experience and one we would certainly recommend to other businesses.

Joint winner was Andrew Chamberlain, studying Business Management Studies at the University of East Anglia.  Andrew was placed at EMILY based in Cheshunt. Commenting on their student, Director Emily Barnes said, “Andrew’s project has benefited so many different aspects of the business, mainly the suggestion of a new brand.  This could be worth up to £200K in sales in its first year of trading.”  Other areas that Andrew tackled were starting the process of a new website for the EMILY brand and setting the business up as a trader on Amazon, these two things combined, in their first year of trading, could be worth between £40K - £70K for Emily and the EMILY brand.

Sharon Gaffney, Shell Step Project Manager for Wenta, was delighted with the success of this year’s programme.  Commenting on the local finals she said, “The quality of presentations rises every year and this year was better than ever before.  From talking to students participating in the programme, they all agreed that taking part in Shell Step had greatly influenced their approach to their future career search. More importantly, it had made them aware of the varying career options available to them within SME’s. Some of the students this year were offered positions within their organisations which is the best result we could possibly hope for.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Shell Step scheme for next year and the New Graduate Placement Scheme running from September – March 2010 should call Wenta on 0845 371 0891.