Between September 2012 - March 2013 North Herts CVS are staging the Dragons’ Apprentice with lower 6th students from schools across North Herts. Teams of students (the Apprentices) will be set a challenge to turn £100 into £1,000 or more for a local charity. The teams may do this in any way they choose as long as they prepare a clear plan stating what their business idea is and how they aim to reach their target. Sponsorship is only acceptable if it’s part of an overall event organised by the team.

Each team will have a business mentor (the Dragons). Each Dragon will provide support in the form of advice, and access to resources, to help their team achieve their business goal and funding target. All profits made by the teams will go directly to their allocated charity. At the awards event in March 2013 a panel of judges (Super Dragons) will evaluate the performance of each team and announce the results.

Business mentors (Dragons) what we’d like from you:

 Minimum of 3 meetings with your team between September 2012 – December 2012 at a mutually convenient time/place. The first meeting to be at your offices.
 Make every effort to include your team’s charity/voluntary group in early planning and activities
 Advice on marketing, finance, business planning, time management (appropriate to your team’s business idea)
 Encourage the involvement and support of your staff in the team’s work and the charity they’re supporting
 If appropriate make resources available to your team (design studios, photo copier, materials, premises etc.)
 Additional publicity for the challenge using your own internal and external channels of communication
 £50 investment in your team + participation fee by end September 2012
 Participation fee = £100 for businesses with <10 employees, £200 for businesses employing 10+
 Advise your team on the best way of presenting their results to a wider audience (money raised/how they did it/what they learned) through a poster or table display at the final awards event
 Attend the final awards event in March 2013 (date and venue tbc)
 Provide your logo + a single paragraph profiling your business

If you would like to get involved please get in touch as soon as possible as teams will be paired on a geographical and “first come, first served” basis.
Hannah Gray, Deputy Director deputydirector@nhcvs.org.uk 01462 689407