Welcome to Edventure! Week 1 is to about getting to know the course, the rest of the team and people from the local community. This week is about setting intentions for what you want to learn from the course and sharing what you can bring. You will learn tools for working well in a team and complete a first ‘Mini challenge’ together. During this week your team will be given the course challenge brief.
Edventure Start-Up
10 students. 10 weeks. 1 challenge.
Mon 2 Sep - Thu 7 Nov 2019
What it is
A practical 10 week course in community entrepreneurship and turning ideas into reality.
How it works
Students learn by setting up a community enterprise that tackles a local need on behalf of a local not-for-profit.
Who its for
Young adults 18-35 who learn best by doing and are up for a challenge.
A typical Start - Up challenge
We gave our students an empty shop, £500, skills & tools, local support and the challenge to boost the sharing economy in Frome
What students say about Edventure
This is what the 9th student team said having just completed a challenge to develop a small space living company
Core Content
Content we will deliver to enable you to complete the team challenge.
Course Structure
Discovering: This week is about discovering more about the course theme and about similar projects. You will be equipped with the skills to go out into the community to learn as much as you can about the challenge and will also get to meet key stakeholders and people who will support the project.
Business ideas: Week 3’s main focus is about generating ideas and refining them ready to get feedback from stakeholders and experts in the community.
Plan & go: Week 4 is about getting ready for action: You will gather resources, define team roles and create a project plan. Once you have the basic building blocks for working effectively together, it is time for the Edventure facilitation team to step back and for the group take the lead.
You are in the driving seat: During weeks 5-9 you will be bringing the start-up to life. Having decided on a leadership structure and individual roles, you will start to implement the project plan. The Edventure team will be at hand to provide mentoring, run reflective learning sessions and to bring in local experts to run workshops on topics such as branding, marketing and other practical skills.
A Few Days Away: It’s pretty amazing what a small team of people can pull off in a short time – There’ll be a celebration at the end to mark this achievement! We will go away on a 3 day residential trip to a beautiful location to reflect, relax, draw out learnings and do some future planning and designing.
Next Steps: From our experience, students leave the course with with very different ideas of what they’d like to do next. Edventure offers a range of opportunities to pick and choose from including ongoing coaching, mentoring, places on free short courses and the use of our Hub space to work on your own projects and ideas.
The practicalities
Anyone aged between 18-35 can apply. You don’t need any formal qualifications or experience. We are looking for a team of people with diverse backgrounds and skills who are motivated and are up for a challenge. Apply for the course because you want to learn from it, learn from each other and make Frome a better place to be.
There is no fixed course cost, but it isn’t free either. We want our course to be as accessible as possible but we also want to know that you are committed. Once you have received a conditional offer after the interview, your challenge will be to help raise funds and resources for the start-up you will be working on as a team of students. You can set your own target as to how much you think you are able to raise (dependent on circumstances, your support network etc). You will need to prepare a fundraising plan which we will discuss at your interview.
There is a different start-up challenge for each Edventure course. Challenges always involves starting up or developing a community enterprise. Our aim is to grow the community and social enterprise sector in Frome to tackle local problems. Details of the upcoming challenge are below.
The aim of the application process is for you to see if Edventure is right for you and enable us to select a good team. We recruit on a rolling basis, so the sooner you apply, the more likely you are to get a place. This is how it works:
- Apply online: click here.
- Attend an informal interview: On Skype or in person at the Welsh Mill Hub
- Receive a conditional offer: We will contact you within 2 weeks. If successful, you will be given an offer of a place, conditional on you taking part in the fundraising challenge and demonstrating that you have done your best to meet your target.
- Confirm offer and start fundraising: Email us to accept your offer of a place. Complete your fundraising challenge before the course start date.
Our courses run for approximately 10 weeks from Mondays -Thursdays from 9.15 -2.45 pm. We will also go away on a 3 day residential. In addition, students need to be available for an additional 4 hours of work/study time a week and to attend the occasional evening or weekend event. For dates please check the upcoming courses section below.
Apply now for Edventure Start-Up
Mon 2 September – Thu 7 November 2019, with a 3 day residential.
The challenge for this Start-Up will be to help launch a Community Plant Nursery at The Walled Garden at Mells, a village near Frome.
- Tackle both social & environmental issues locally
- Transform an underused plant nursery into a thriving community project
- Create a financially sustainable social enterprise that applies the principles of therapeutic horticulture
- Tackle isolation and a lack of opportunities, whilst giving community groups and local people the opportunity to learn about growing plants
- Design both the space & services of the social enterprise
- Develop a brand and build physical infrastructure
- Launch it at the end of October
Students will get the opportunity to go through the stages of setting up a social business – from market research to business planning, from generating ideas to project planning, branding and launching the idea. All whilst learning to work in a team and stepping into leadership.
