Pupils from Thornaby Academy have teamed up with MFC Foundation and Teesside Retail Park to take part in the ‘Raise Your Game’ enterprise programme, which provides Key Stage 3 students the opportunity to participate in real-life business and enterprise activities in the retail sector.
Funded by British Land PLC, owners of Teesside Park, the programme has provided over 100 young people in secondary education the chance to earn enterprise qualifications over the past three years, as well as valuable life skills that will help them in their future working careers.
This past week, Teesside Park invited 20 students from Thornaby Academy to learn more about the park and its stores, and the different challenges the outlets face on a daily basis to maximise efficiency and quality.
The children began the day at Hollywood Bowl, a multi lane ten-pin bowling centre, before visiting one of the park’s most popular restaurants, Nandos.
The students then visited Teesside Park Management Centre to take part in a number of resilience challenges, requiring them to overcome difficult logistical problems and fixing them together as a team.
To round off the day, the young people visited Curry’s/PC World to learn more about new revolutionary technology that keeps the organisation at the fore-front of the UK’s tech sales market.
In the next few weeks, the children will be set a challenge by the park which will require them to use all of the skills they have learned on the programme to create their very own retail kiosk.
Mike Clarke, Centre Director at Teesside Park said: “We had the pleasure of hosting the latest part of the Raise Your Game programme this week. Since October we have been working with Thornaby Academy.
“The kids had a fun filled day with us taking part in various activities in Hollywood Bowl, Nando’s and Curry’s.
“It’s great to get involved with the local community and this MFC Foundation initiative for the third year. We’re looking forward to setting the young people the Teesside Park Challenge and seeing the results.”