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The YES Mean Business Programme at Cornton Vale Prison is funded by KPMG and the Volant Trust and is currently in its second year running. New young prisoners are told of the programme at their induction and all have the chance to choose to participate.
On Friday 18 April 2008 the groups of students from the company OTT (Over The Top) successfully secured a £150 start-up loan for their business selling puzzle books.
The group of 6 girls presented the business plan they wrote and designed to YES Chief Executive Stuart Miller, Governor Ian Gunn and Prison Officer Kenna Murchison and answered questions from the panel, before being informed that they had successfully secured the loan. The presentation represented the culmination of the 13-week Mean Business Programme the 6 girls aged 19-23 began at the end of January.
Working with YES trainers Michael Traynor and Lorraine Mulligan, the students spent 2 mornings a week going through 10 steps to learn how to set up and run their own business and basic business techniques such as holding effective meetings, brainstorming, product costing and some aspects of sales and marketing.
Although similar to the Company Programme, the Mean Business Programme (which runs in prisons and young offenders institutions) takes account of the fact that many prisoners won’t have the same background as students in mainstream school and therefore the Programme also focuses on developing key soft skills such as communication skills, team work and numeracy and literacy.
OTT’s product is an activity pack of 3 puzzle books (Sudoku, Wordsearch and Crossword), pack of gel pens and a gift bag which they plan to sell to prisoners, visitors and staff. They did their research by creating a product prototype, issuing market research questionnaires to prisoners and had the additional challenge of ensuring their product complied with prison security and health and safety regulations.
The team plans to reinvest any profit back into the business to expand to sell more products (hence the company’s generic name) and to get new prisoners to sell to and to join the team.
Certainly, the group of girls in the current Programme would recommend other prisoners be involved – “we all got something out of the Programme – confidence, business skills…” And self-confidence, determination, a positive outlook and learning to work as a team, as was evident by the united way in which the girls presented themselves.
The Programme is funded by KPMG and the Volant Trust and is currently in its second year running in Cornton Vale. New young prisoners are told of the Programme at their induction and all have the chance to participate. By recruiting their successors, it is hoped that the Programme will be sustained in terms of involvement. And there’s a role for those who’ve been through the Programme, too - as Business Advisors!
For those about to be released, the Programme also helps them identify which other skills/opportunities they have and how they can use these on their release. For those who wish to start up their own business on release, YES works in partnership with PSYBT and refers on such students. We are thrilled to announce that two students from OTT are planning to use the skills they have gained through Mean Business to do just this. We would like to congratulate all participants on their achievements and wish them every success in the future. |
