Getting girls into sport at Preston - The Apprentice style

PHOTO: Preston School students with sports centre manager Matt Harras, 160 leisure trust general manager Nick Lovett, Preston teacher Jess Gray and leisure trust chief executive Tim Nightingale.

ENCOURAGING reluctant teenager girls in Yeovil to take up sport and exercise will be the new challenge facing budding business entrepreneurs at Preston School.

Year 11 business studies students are being invited to pitch their best marketing ideas about Preston Sports Centre in Yeovil in a special business competition set by the leisure trust 1610.

The trust manages the new £800,000 Preston Sports Centre which opened in October this year.

The students are being challenged to market the sports centre to older teenagers, particularly girls which are a hard to reach group in terms of active participation in sports and exercise.

The pupils had to pitch their most creative ideas to a panel of leisure industry experts from 1610, including the CEO of the leisure trust, Tim Nightingale., earlier this week.

The students with the most innovative marketing strategy will then see their ideas put into action by 1610 in January.

Manager of the Preston Sports Centre, Matt Harras, said: “ Encouraging older teenagers, especially girls to engage with sport and exercise can be very difficult as many of them  drop sport in favour of other interests as they enter their late teens.

''So what better way than to ask teenagers themselves to help solve this problem and to give local young people valuable and practical experience of the business world and the leisure industry.

''The students will be asked to pitch a number of marketing ideas, including social media which we will then implement next year and which they can include as part of their business studies assignments.”

The winners will also be given a prize of a day with the Active Hestercombe outdoor pursuits team as well as £500 pounds to spend on sports equipment for the school.

PHOTO: 1610 leisure trust general manager Nick Lovett, far left, Preston Sports Centre manager Matt Harras, centre, and 1610 chief executive Tim Nightingale, far right, with students David Parkinson, Emily Seal and Charlie Towner.

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