On the Wednesday 25 February, the Intermediate 2, Higher and Advanced Higher Business Management pupils gathered along with some representatives from the local community for the inaugural Knox Academy Business Question Time.
Local business people joined the panel – Joe Forte from Joe Forte Sports, Suzanne Haughey from The Health and Beauty Centre, Mike Hoppe from Subway Haddington and Gillian Burgess who is Manager of M&Co Haddignton.
The panel was chaired by Linda Mitchell from Silver Lining. Alistair Bryce from the East Lothian Council Economic Development Unit was also in attendance.
Each of the panel had different experiences in running different types of businesses which meant that all topics could be covered. The aim of the event was to help us find out information to support our studies and to see what we have been learning about applied to real situations.
Each panellist introduced themselves and told us a little about their business before our questions were put to them. We submitted questions to them asking about everything from recruitment, to cash flow, to how to start up your own business. The panellists answered questions which had relevance to them which allowed us to learn about many different aspects of running a business.
After the event itself we had a chance to mingle with the panellists and ask any further questions which may have not been covered. Overall the event allowed us to take our learning from books to reality and it was a great chance to see what we have been learning about being put into practice. It allowed us to learn about how shops in the local community work and was a great way to refresh our memories on previous topics.
Hopefully the event will allow us to have a greater link with businesses in the local community in the future due to it being such a success! Thanks to all involved.
Megan McCafferty 6L
