Posted by on 22 January 2010 | 0 Comments

A real life business ‘dragon’ helped Gwent learners to fire up their desire to run the enterprises of the future this Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 16 to 22).

Simon Thomas, managing director of Newport-based water management solutions provider, Asset International, visited the ‘Learn About’ education and training centre in Risca on Wednesday November 18 to judge a Dragon’s Den-style competition.

The contest, based on the hugely-popular BBC series, saw trainees bravely pitching their creative ideas to Mr Thomas in a bid to secure a cash prize.

Ideas included a community art bus, which would involve an artist travelling around to teach skills like pottery and watercolour, a ‘butter stick’, which looks like a Pritt Stick and is designed for the ”lazy man” to spread his butter easily, and a silent dog toy, whose squeak is so high that it can only be heard by dogs and not by their owners.

Mr Thomas also delivered an inspirational talk to youngsters about how his innovative ideas and self-motivation helped him rise from apprentice engineer to managing director in the successful manufacturing firm which makes high density polyethylene pipe systems for use in civil engineering projects

Mr Thomas’ visit to Learn About during the awareness week was arranged as part of the centre’s Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification course. The qualification, which has been delivered at the Risca centre since September, requires learners to take part in a team enterprise activity which helps them to understand how businesses work and develops their entrepreneurial skills.

The qualification, which is currently being delivered to more 35,000 learners in 168 schools, colleges and training centres throughout Wales, adds a valuable new dimension to the subjects and courses already available for 14 to 19-year-olds.

The qualification, introduced by the Welsh Assembly Government, aims to transform learning for young people in Wales. It combines personal development skills with existing qualifications like A levels, NVQs and GCSEs.

Dewi D’arch, skills trainer at Learn About, which is part of Wales’ largest work-based learning company ACT, said: “Global Entrepreneurship Week provided us with the perfect opportunity to really drive the team enterprise element of the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification and we are extremely grateful to Mr Thomas for coming to the centre and helping us to do that.

“Hearing someone like Mr Thomas speak has been a real eye-opener for our learners and I firmly believe that his flair for business and enterprising spirit has had an immensely positive impact on them.

“Pitching their ideas to Simon evidently took some of the learners right out of their comfort zones, but this experience will be of tremendous value to them when they venture into the world of work.”

Mr Thomas said: “I have been really impressed with what I have seen today. The ideas have been really creative and it’s obvious a lot of effort has gone into developing them. The Welsh Baccalaureate is an extremely valuable qualification, in the way that it allows young people develop so many skills, such as business and communication skills.”