University College London Enterprise, Camden Council, Citrus Saturdays and Circalit

An interesting event this evening at University College London Old Refectory for a talk about the partnership with Camden Council business support and UCL Enterprise.

Timothy Barnes, the Director of Enterprise Operations at UCL gave an energetic talk about a selection of UCL activities to support entrepreneurs from within their 25,000 student body as well as entrepreneurial Camden residents.

Perhaps the most surprising and certainly the most youthful project is Citrus Saturday, which from small beginnings has spread across several European cities:

Citrus_Saturday_logoAround sixty 11 to 14-year-olds, drawn from a range of schools in the borough, will run stalls selling lemonade and other citrus products such as orange smoothies and lemon ice cream. The stalls will be located in ten prime locations, for example, Euston Station, Tavistock Square Park and Brunswick Centre. The children will be supervised by a trained volunteer drawn from the UCL student body, who will have acted as a ‘business mentor’ throughout the training programme.

Citrus Saturday is designed to infuse children with a spirit of enterprise. It aims to teach them the basic business and, indeed, life skills necessary to become successful, contributing members of their communities.

It’s also an opportunity for families, schools, businesses, students and even members of the public, to unite for a common purpose – to train the next generation of entrepreneurs through a free, enjoyable, engaging activity. Children will learn how to set goals, create budgets, secure investors, select a site, purchase supplies, serve customers, make a profit and repay investors.

Citrus Saturday offers many of Camden’s young people their first experience of these life lessons. It may be some time before they are thinking about going out into the world and making a living, but in the meantime we aim to boost their confidence and instil self-esteem – all while making sure they have fun, of course.

By chance I found myself sitting next to Raoul Tawadey the founder of one of UCL ‘s success stories Circalit.

Circalit is the best place to discover new authors and share stories online. You can read thousands of fantastic stories on Circalit for free by visiting the hot reads section.

Circalit aims to be the YouTube or SoundCloud for new writers. As Raul pointed out to me, there are many more writers in the world than video or music creators, but they don’t have a place to get exposure as the traditional publishers are swamped with manuscripts. The website also includes writing advice from professionals such as Sopranos scriptwriter Nick Santora. Circalit looks like a really interesting service to aspiring writers.

Circalit_logo

 

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