Students from Prior Pursglove Sixth Form and Hartlepool Sixth Form were invited to a Year 12 Business Conference, hosted by the University’s Business School.
During the event the pupils, aged 16 to 17, heard presentations about leadership from Bob Cuffe, Managing Director of the Evening Gazette, Ray Mallon, Mayor of Middlesbrough and Joe Fryett from the North East Chamber of Commerce. Following this, they were split into teams to devise marketing campaigns promoting Middlesbrough. When producing their campaigns, they worked with Maxine Freer and Lisa Higgins from We Do Marketing and Noel Dennis, Principal Lecturer in Marketing in the Business School.
Embracing the opportunity Noel said: ‘This was a fantastic opportunity for the students to hear inspirational and motivational stories from some of the country's most respected business leaders. The students really embraced the day. ‘They produced some superb work in the interactive workshops and posed some very interesting and challenging questions to the business leaders in the question and answer session. There were certainly some future entrepreneurs and leaders identified.’
Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon added: ‘The only guarantee for the future is the young people in the audience today. Many of them will be the leaders of Middlesbrough in the future. I wanted to give them my perspective of where the town is going and how they can contribute.’
Lisa Scott, 17, from Prior Pursglove Sixth Form, said: ‘It was inspirational to hear the speakers’ own stories, how they got to where they are. I want to study Business locally.’
Alex Oyston, 17, also from Prior, added: 'The speakers motivated you, it wasn’t just lectures. It was good to get the views of those with powerful lives. It was my first time in the University and I want to study Business finance later.'