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Fresh Minds - an exciting new initiative

Countec has trialed a new initiative called Fresh Minds with the Open University.
The aim of ‘Fresh Minds’ is for a group of students to visit an employer’s premises to find out more about the business and tackle a current, authentic business problem. The event took place on Monday 29th November 2011 at the OU with students from the MK Academy.
10 students participated, which involved them having a tour of the business premises, finding out about the company and being briefed on the business problem. The session included a structured brainstorm where the students brought their ‘fresh minds’ to the table, then selected best solutions and presented them back to the company.
The aim was to benefit students by improving their business awareness, problem solving and communication skills. The business benefited by finding out what today's young people thought about work and the many new ideas that they came up with that were not in the normal field of business thinking.
Debbie Gockelen, Director of Personal Development at The Milton Keynes Academy, said: “A fantastic exercise, the students came out feeling they had really achieved something."
One student said: “I enjoyed sharing my ideas and working in a team.”
Stephanie O’Halloran from the Open University said: “I felt the event went really well, and I was impressed with the way the students engaged with the activity. It was wonderful to hear their ‘naïvely valuable’ ideas, and I’m sure a number of them will prove useful."
If you would like more information about Fresh Minds, or you would like to participate in the initiative, please call the office 01908 209940 and ask to speak to Tom Bulman or Michael Sandison.
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