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Brightside has been running Big Deal Blogs - a business enterprise competition for disadvantaged and talented students with an interest in business - in partnership with York and Warwick universities since 2007. Big Deal Blogs is a 10-week online enterprise challenge where teams of school students in years 9-10 develop competing business plans by working through weekly assignments with their business mentors via the Big Deal Blogs ementoring website. Mentors support students to undertake SWOT analyses and market research, work in teams, prepare budgets and ultimately write their business plans.  Teams pitch their ideas to a Dragons Den style judging panel, with the best teams winning trips to New York or London – so there is all to play for!

Track record

Each year, the programme has grown in size and to date, Big Deal Blogs has reached 573 students and 146 mentors. An independent evaluation of Big Deal Blogs by The Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) found that:

• 92% of mentees had developed their organisational skills
• 95% had developed their planning skills
• 89% had developed their communication skills
• 97% had improved their financial planning
• 94% had improved their presentation skills
• 79% of participating students were more interested in undertaking a career in business
• 89% of students stated that their desire to attend a top university had increased

Get involved

Big Deal Blogs is a great way for companies, business schools or university widening participation departments to support enterprise outreach initiatives aimed at helping young people. It is a flexible way for business professionals to volunteer (mentors come back year on year) and it is a short term, measurable project with demonstrable results.

Brightside is keen to expand Big Deal Blogs to help more young people. We are also keen to adapt this successful model for other sectors, such as media and advertising.

If you are interested, please contact Pamela Zigomo on 0207 922 7798 or email pamela.zigomo@thebrightsidetrust.org
 

Brightside is being funded by the Nuffield Foundation to pilot an innovative ementoring programme to support student parents during the transition from Further to Higher Education.

StudentParents.org

Launched in September 2010, StudentParents.org was developed by Brightside in association with NUS, The National Association of Student Money Advisers (NASMA) and AMOSSHE, the UK Student Services Association to provide student parents with clear information and guidance to help prepare for university life. 

The website provides a range of online information and tools including;

• Jargon buster to provide clear  information about student support
• Budget calculator with information about financial support and tools  to build their own budget
• Tips on preparing for higher education, including time management, childcare options and study skills
• Case studies from students already balancing higher education with parenthood

Student Parents Ementoring

As well as StudentParents.org, this programme is also piloting the use of ementoring to support student parents with the transition from further to higher education. Students at Level 3 in college who are thinking of going to university are mentored by student parents already studying at a local university.

The programme spans two academic years, so that mentees receive support to help them to make informed choices and adapt to student life. Mentors can access a support network of other student parents at their university as well as a university student adviser through the site, if they need support themselves. 

The programme is piloted in partnership with five Further Education Colleges and five Higher Education Institutions in England in five cities:

• Liverpool
• Birmingham
• London
• Leeds
• Northampton

The ementoring service is a closed pilot but there are a range of free resources that any student parents can access from the website.

Get involved

If you would like to run a project like this, please contact Pamela Zigomo on pamela.zigomo@thebrightsidetrust.org or call 0207 922 7798