ESOL students enter the Dragon's Den in Pitching Practice Event - CCCG
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ESOL students enter the Dragon’s Den in Pitching Practice Event

On Thursday 5 December, students from the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) department at the Centre for Lifelong Learning presented a number of enterprise projects that they had been working on since September.

ESOL students enter the Dragon’s Den in Pitching Practice Event

As part of their study programme, students have the opportunity to relate their learnings to the real world, benefitting from the college’s wide network of local employers. The 16-18 ESOL cohort was the most recent to pitch their ideas to local employers in an event that required students to design their own business venture in their target language.

The enterprise ideas ranged from phone accessories to a Colombian take away, as well as organic fertiliser imported from Turkey, a new tourist train line for Quito in Equador, an online music shop for new artists, a specialist cleaning company and an online travel company.

The students presented their enterprise ideas to a panel of experts from different industries alongside Head of Department, Andrew Fairhurst. Panel members joined from local health charity Healthwatch Islington, the engineering and construction company VolkerWesselsUK and marketing and design agency West Creative.

Critical feedback from the panel helped students to develop their presentation skills and their business ideas. This included advice on how to present slides for maximum impact, how to build businesses and how to communicate effectively.

Students were taught that ‘less is more’ when it comes to presenting information, to start small and grow slowly for business sustainability and how to address the panel whilst standing up and speaking.

Students took away contacts from the companies and the charity with information on how to pursue future potential employment opportunities.

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