In addition to videos of students talking about the impact of meeting entrepreneurs have had, other students have written in what they felt and thought about the programme:
...their (the speakers') backgrounds at our age were typical and so normal that we easily related to them...this showed us that hard work and motivation can help you get the career you want.
The women were particularly inspiring as they shared how they balanced being a mother and CEO as well as achieving in typically male-dominated fields
Very useful... it gave me an idea of what to study at university if I want to be a successful entrepreneur. It also gave me an idea about what I want to do in the future
It gave me a taste of what it might be like to be an entrepreneur...
...I loved it because it was from people who have experienced what we were going through now. They did not know what they wanted to do but they worked hard and got there.
Look further into technology, aim higher in life.
Persevere.
Look at enterprise in a new light.
Think about starting my own business.
Explore my creative ideas further.
Find more solutions to problems.
The best bit? The speakers talking about their passion.
The event was a very successful one. It inspired the students so it obviously made quite an impact!
Thank you again for last Thursday's presentations. The more I think about it the more useful, inspirational and practical I think it was - it has really helped us to clarify some strategies we want to put in place with our sixth form.
From our perspective, this was a great opportunity to link to the course, and I was really pleased as a teacher that so many things they study came up within the talk. I was quite happy to steer a few conversations into more specific things, and I'll be using it as a reference in my teaching, certainly.
This is a brilliant idea and such opportunities are invaluable to the youths of today. The format for our event was fantastic and the interaction between the speakers and audience was a delight.
Speaking to students afterwards they were struck by how well [the business leaders] spoke but also how much they had achieved – they made entrepreneurship and a job in the High Tech industries seem achievable for all in the room, made students think about career routes that they hadn't previously thought about. They made a really effective connection.