York's entrepreneurs of the future are to be nurtured at the city's first business and enterprise college.

CATHERINE BRUCE visited Burnholme Community College to find out about the school's vision to create a business ethos in Tang Hall.

TURNING out the next Sir Richard Branson may seem like a tall order. But Burnholme Community College is up for the challenge.

Keen to shake off its image as a school in a deprived area and create strong links with York's business community, the community college was given specialist business and enterprise status at the end of January. The status will see the college net an extra £65,000 a year for the next four years to invest in improving pupils' performance in maths, ICT and business subjects.

But the main focus of the school's vision for the future is its plan to create a £150,000 business centre and conference suite in the school, which can be used by York businesses. The centre, which will be created from part of the school's existing technology block and a new extension, is expected to be up and running in time for Burnholme's open day on October 21.

John Fletcher, the business links co-ordinator at the school, said: "It will be somewhere local businesses can come for support and it will be of value to local community groups."

The new centre, which will have its own entrance separate from the school, will include a small business area where both pupils and local businesses will be able to get advice from HSBC staff and carry out their banking.

The school is hopeful it can generate more income by hiring out the main conference room, which will have up to 35 computer terminals, a smartboard presentation area and a hospitality room. The area will also be used to teach GCSE business students how to work in a business environment rather than a classroom.

"Becoming a business college will have massive benefits for the kids, but also hopefully local businesses. We will be looking for higher results in all our specialist subjects and we have set targets to increase the level of participation in enterprise activity each year," said Mr Fletcher.

Many of Burnholme's pupils are already actively involved with the local business community.

Recently, 15 of the school's students went to a Blue Skies Roadshow, in Leeds, to learn about setting up a business and come face-to-face with some entrepreneurs. The school has also created links with a variety of York businesses through NYBEP (North Yorkshire Business and Education Partnership).

Diana Golding, the manger of the Coppergate Centre in York, gave the school £3,000 in sponsorship, and GCSE pupils are currently carrying out a statistics exercise at Coppergate, surveying who shops at the centre and when. The Coppergate branch of Starbucks has sponsored a section on retail jobs in the school's careers library and the books collected during the coffee shop's book drop scheme at Christmas were given to Burnholme.

In addition, York hi-tech firm Agilysis has offered to help the school teach e-commerce to its students.

Some enterprising students have also created their own business within the school, the Burnholme Bag Company, which provides the Yorkshire Archaeological Trust with bags to store their archaeological finds.

The school is also hoping its entrepreneurial spirit will rub off on to its feeder primary schools. Pupils at Tang Hall, Hempland, Osbaldwick, Heworth and Derwent primary schools are all involved in a scheme with Nestl in which the children produce their own chocolates and package them for sale.

Mentoring plays an important part in Burnholme's vision for the future. Business people come into the school and develop a one-to-one relationship with students, who need business direction or a self-confidence boost.

The school even has its own entrepreneur-in-residence, David Perry, who came to the school two years ago as part of a three-year project to encourage enterprising activities. Mr Perry has been instrumental in setting up a stockbroking project in which selected Year 10 pupils compete against professional stockbrokers J M Finn in Leeds. In the scheme, four pairs of students buy and sell virtual shares, and the team that makes the most money wins £200 in prize money. If the project, which ends on Thursday, is a success, it will be rolled out to more pupils in the future.

Mr Fletcher said one of the aims of becoming a business college was to broaden pupils' horizons. One of the ways the school is doing this is by forging links with other business and enterprise colleges around the country.

Burnholme was given £25,000 in sponsorship by Prof Alec Reed, the man behind Reed employment agencies. The school hopes to work alongside other colleges, which have received sponsorship from Prof Reed, to share ideas and possibly organise exchanges.

Mr Fletcher said there were still plenty of opportunities for businesses in the area to get involved.

Businesses which require information about how they can work with Burnholme Community College should phone Mr Fletcher on 01904 423881.

Updated: 09:48 Monday, March 22, 2004