Card Connection franchise owner Terry Winchester has been encouraging young budding entrepreneurs by managing a daylong Dragon’s Den style project based around the greeting card industry.

Around 125 pupils at Witchford Village College took part in the event, which began with a presentation by Winchester about the greeting card industry. The pupils aged 13 and 14 then worked in groups to ‘manage’ their own greeting card businesses, cumulating with a Dragon’s Den style presentation of their ideas to Winchester and Sharon Little, Chief Executive of the Greeting Card Association (GCA).

Winchester said: “My role is to liaise with schools as a representative of Littleport Rotary Club. As part of this, we are involved in initiatives where outside parties talk to year groups to support their learning. As a former company Director and now franchise owner for the greeting card company Card Connection, I am very familiar with this industry and so decided to run a greeting card day. I got together with the GCA who was able to provide resources for the project, while Royal Mail and Card Connection provided support with free samples of cards for the pupils as well as a short film about how greeting cards are made. The industry magazine ‘Progressive Greetings’ was also able to supply copies of the publication for the day.

“I was particularly impressed by the enthusiasm and innovation of the ideas and designs shown by the pupils at Witchford Village College. The feedback from staff and students was also very positive and so resulted in a valuable and rewarding outcome for all those involved.”

Little added: “We’ve been delighted to help Tony with this brilliant project. The GCA has all sorts of resources on hand to help any member of the industry who is keen to carry out a school’s visit. It's really important in today’s instant culture to show that sending a card is such a special means of communication.”

Published: 30 January 2012

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