You are in: RLNYH > Business Club > Case Studies > Queensbury
QUEENSBURY STUDENTS WIN CHINESE BUSINESS AWARDS
On Monday 24th January, pupils at Queensbury School pitted their wits against each other to come up with enterprising
ideas for a new shoe design to sell to China. The business challenge was arranged to celebrate Chinese New Year
and was sponsored by China Britain Business Council, a Business Language Champion for Yorkshire & Humber,
together with Young Enterprise.
The main activity of China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) is to provide advice to UK companies on doing business
with China. However, Giles Blackburne, Director of CBBC was very enthusiastic about setting up a school challenge.
“We are fully supportive of all efforts to increase awareness about China in schools. As Director of CBBC and as a
Business Language Champion I was really keen to get involved with Queensbury School.”
85 Y8 students were given key information about Chinese culture and language by volunteer Chinese undergraduates
from the universities of Leeds and Bradford, arranged by CBBC. The students incorporated important cultural aspects
such as the use of the lucky colour, red, and the lucky number, eight, into their shoe and boot designs. Students
learned from their Chinese mentors about the cultural relevance of animals in the Chinese zodiac calendar and these
prompted a range of lively designs incorporating tigers and dragons. One pair of shoes used the rat in its logo and on
its shoe because of the rodent’s fame for always coming first in the race!
After an intense morning of developing ideas, the specifications of their product range, thinking about the most beneficial
location for a new shoe factory and calculating a pricing structure, the students worked in teams to pitch their business
ideas to their teachers and university mentors. “It was remarkable how keenly the students took to the task and how they
incorporated aspects of Chinese culture into their business presentations," said Giles Blackburne. Ruth Linden from
the Regional Language Network Yorkshire & Humber (RLNYH) was similarly impressed: “The students applied
themselves to the business challenge with real enthusiasm and the effort they put into using cultural references and
language in both their designs and their presentations was excellent.”
The teams were graded in terms of the quality of their design, their financial considerations, their marketing approach
and the quality of their business presentation. Class winners then went on to pitch their ideas to ‘dragons’ Giles
Blackburne, CBBC, Ruth Linden, RLNYH and Ko Hsin Illingworth who runs her own translation agency in West Yorkshire.
The scoring was tight and in the end the dragons awarded a joint first prize to two winning teams that designed the
‘Yang Shoe’ design and ‘MSM’ shoe. The runner-up team designed ‘Shoe Harbin’ whose name reflected the team’s
chosen location for their factory.
“Young Enterprise were delighted to be asked to work as a partner in designing this event, largely because it incorporated
so much more than is usually expected from an enterprise day. The fact that students learnt about a foreign culture -
including language, customs, and demographics - through a business and enterprise related activity shows that different
issues are very often interlinked. As well as being a fun and exciting day, we hope this event also helped the students gain
new skills and gave them a broader perspective of the world and the people in it.” James Rand, Development Manager,
Young Enterprise Yorkshire and the Humber.
QUEENSBURY STUDENTS WIN CHINESE BUSINESS AWARDS
On Monday 24th January, pupils at Queensbury School pitted their wits against each other to come up with enterprising
Printable Version
Email to a Friend