Jenko Rewards Entrepreneurs at Local School

I was delighted to attend, as every year, The Hull Trinity House School Awards Day at the Guildhall today; as ever the boys looked extremely smart in their whites (ducks as we used to call them) and blue-black uniform and they received their awards with an air of confidence and responsibility. There are some days when it feels very proud to be from Hull and the school, hopefully, has incremented an improvement on last year's results on the GCSE front, making Trinity possibly the most successful state school in the city.

Not that that mattered today, Trinity House School is steeped in tradition and the sartorial elegance is just one aspect, the cadets' daily parade where positivity is rewarded is another - this, I'm sure can be a bind for the hormonal young people, but, it does reinforce bonding and and respect for school as well as each other and this is rewarding to see and experience. Well done to all the boys working hard on becoming successful and responsible citizens.

I have been involved with the school for around three years now and see my role as a volunteer to develop and nurture enterprise in the school. I am a business advisor with Young Enterprise and October will see one or perhaps two, (if we are lucky) Company Programs commence at the school. A minimum of six students per company will form a limited company, accept roles as individual directors and kick off a nine month program of personal development and fun creating a business idea or concept.

Something that sprang out of my very first company at the school (Custom Clocks) was the confidence for some of the directors to step up and form one of the first Young Chambers in Hull and this, too, is now fully functioning. The Young Chamber elects officers and the young people make key decisions around funding projects, arranging enterprise days and generally reinforcing the idea of inspiring enterprise in their school - and, guess what, I'm really down with that (that means 'up' for my older readers!) because, its my wish to expand the experience of enterprise for these fantastic young people - it delivers a sense of achievement and hold their risk-taking in positive regard. They learn by doing and recover from mistakes by being extremely adult and wise for their age, which, as you can imagine can be very humbling for a mature old dude like me. They don't have to call me sir, which appears to bond their mentor to their cause and makes me incredibly proud of their capacity for team-work and advancement.

It is for this reason, that Jenko rewards one student every year for Entrepreneurship (wish there was a cooler word for this for this age group) and, so, I am very proud to announce that the third annual Jenko Award for bizsense (ok, I'm working on it!) goes to Alex M Woodard, well done Alex! It goes without saying that I was extremely proud hearing his name being announced as he strode positively across the stage past the Lord Mayor, Head Master and other dignitaries to the incredibly tall River Walker and business supremo, Graham Boanus. Graham also delivered a rousing and clipped to the point acknowledgment of the boys' achievements and, I could tell from that emotional speech that he too may have just caught the Trinity bug and, I hope he becomes involved in sharing my quest for enterprise success at Hull Trinity House School.

I have been asked to speak about Jenko's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies at an up an coming Hull Business Forum event called Why Corporate Social Responsibility Matters it's on Wednesday 21st July, KC Stadium, Hull. 1.30pm - 4.30pm -http://www.hullbusinessforum.com/events/2010/07/why_corporate_social_responsibility_matters/

 Why not consider devoting some time to your nearest school, it is incredibly rewarding and, guess what, you actually learn a hell of a lot about yourself. Salutes.