Students taking part in the University of Plymouth's annual enterprise competition FLUX will be using their business skills to help a Cornish food bank expand, with a view to rolling out the best ideas nationally.
The Callington Foodbank, along with South West energy supplier Total Energy Solutions, will set the challenge to eight teams of students who will battle it out to become the University’s 2015 FLUX Champions and secure a place at the National FLUX.
The teams represent a number of disciplines from chemistry to the arts and engineering to psychology having gone through a faculty-wide selection process since the start of the academic year.
A scenario will be given to the teams the day before the competition, tasking the students to develop, plan and present a business strategy. Experts will be on hand to give advice during special business meetings before the teams go in front of a judging panel.
Pam Stephens of the Callington Foodbank, said:
“We are delighted to be involved in this event which will benefit both the students and our organisation. Our offering relies on the goodwill of people donating so we will be challenging the students to come up with a short term and long term business plan to develop the work we do with a view to taking the most innovative ideas forward.”
This year’s panel also includes representatives from the Ministry of Defence and Babcock, Unlocking Potential and KPMG, IBM and Plymouth City Council.
Shirley Walker, Head of Careers and Employability at the University of Plymouth, said:
“FLUX is a great way for students to demonstrate their business knowledge under the watchful eye of these experts who are often looking for up-and-coming talent. It will challenge their skills and their confidence and is an incredibly useful experience to add to their CV.”
Alastair Carnegie, managing director of Total Energy Solutions, said:
“We are delighted to be sponsoring the FLUX competition this year. This is the ninth year that we’ve been involved with the event. FLUX enables students to get to grips with business-type scenarios and come up with some creative ideas, which this year, could benefit the work of a national charity.”
The competition takes place over a full day on Wednesday 25 February in the Rolle Square Marquee at the University of Plymouth, with a networking event at the end of the day to celebrate the students’ achievements. The winning team will go on to compete at the Nationals in March against 16 other UK universities, which the University of Plymouth has won four times in the past seven years and are the current defending champions.