Young Business is Great!

Young people, skills and business! A great mix. I was very pleased to be opening an event today in the Embassy’s Conference Centre organised together with the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce (BPCC) and SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise). What’s that all about?

SIFE is a CSR project which is supporting young people to understand business and create links with Academia. The BPCC and the British Embassy are actively encouraging CSR projects across Poland. The event today was all about showcasing CSR, learning and the opportunities for young students to start out in the business world. It’s a great little story.

SIFE is working with academic centres all over Poland. Teams of university students actively work on innovative business ideas and then compete amongst each other to showcase their projects. The team which came to the Embassy is a group of university students from Łódź who recently won the Polish SIFE finals. They are bound for Washington to the global finals of SIFE. They have come to Warsaw to present their approach to presenting their project and promote what they are going to be presenting at the finals. Well done team Łódź!

The team presented 3 great projects which are really focused on sustainable development:

1. Green Up Your Waste

A project which is focused on encouraging companies to manage their waste in a responsible way.

2. Kickstart

A great project focused on re~activating a community in a high area of unemplyment in Łódź region.

3. Learn and Discover

A project to expand deaf childrens’ knowledge about economics, finances and legal affairs which is aimed at improving their opportunities in future life.

The global project is a great example of CSR in practice. Young people are encouraged to pick ideas which represent opportunities for sustainable business. In their teams they set up projects. Learning and skills are a key component. Big business can get involved by supporting the teams with ideas, skills development, inspiring confidence and perhaps most importantly by identifying growth opportunity.

What happens to the projects over the long term? A great business idea will fly. Each idea has the potential to turn into a real business. Even if it doesn’t, the students, their universities and the external businesses engaged in the project all have something to learn. Focusing creative talent on one of today’s big challenges – sustainable growth – is an excellent step forward and a great way of pragmatically introducing our next wave of leaders into today’s dynamically changing business world.

Team Łódź – Good Luck – Some Great ideas. Washington here we come. Let’s go for gold.