Introduction

 

Whitefield school is one of the largest providers of special education in Europe with an international reputation for expertise curriculum training. Ofsted judged Whitefield to be an outstanding in all categories in the last 3 years. They created a national teaching school in 2012. They formed a Whitefield academy trust. They look for careers and life changing opportunities for their students. They have 4 special needs school, caters specially for severe autism and also they have another which is especially for visually impairment. They are currently funded form their local council. They use the Project Search scheme to get their students with disabilities into meaningful full-time employment. The scheme allows them to make strong formal links to key employers and arranges to internships which leads to real jobs.

 

Project Brief

 

We had to help them by giving radical/creative suggestions that identifies potential opportunities with new ways to approach partners. Also how we can improve their students journey, so that it can be smoother and more supportive for them.

 

• Creative suggestion

• Potential opportunities

• New ways to approach partners

 

Overview

 

The whole cohort decided to split into groups and ideate around in the areas we thought that these were the potential opportunities that would help in the future. The areas were Funding, Partners, Identification of Skills, Support and Viewed Perception. In these areas we had to come up with new radical creative solutions and ideas. In the later stages of the project, these were then integrated into a series of short, medium and long term business models. Also some of the concepts ideas that we came up, we’ve placed them in a concept book. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ideation – Funding, Partners

 

At the initial stages of the project, our methods of splitting into groups was still similar to semester 1 because as cohort each member decides which group he/she wanted to go regardless of what group that person’s discipline would be suitable in.  I was in the funding section which meant that our aim was to ideate creative ideas of how they can get more funding. We used the same ideation from last semester which was the “30 second ideation”. Once again this method of ideating was useful because it gets people to think quickly on their feet and urges people to come up with ideas every 30 seconds.

 

Another method we used was the worst was the “the worst idea technique”. I believe that this technique was another great of way still keeping us of coming with idea even though they weren’t great ides. However we take one specific bad idea and then alter it by somehow making it better.

 

One idea that we’ve came up was to look at how the universities could fund them because it could involve them to have corporate social responsibility with Whitefield. Also looking at how the lottery to could fund them and looking at helping them to train their students of finding jobs in the future.  One idea that we came up was for them to create a documentary about the school. They could potentially make a story about hier students and how they opereate on a day-to-day basis and this might get people to connect with them. We also looked at cottage idutries for example they could have students that have special skills and they could maxize it by having them crate items or products and then selling it off.  Apparently last year's MDI students did the Percy Hedley foundation project which involved one student that had autisms, he used to make birdhouses, then selling them and donating the money to the foundation.  At the end we managed to develop ideas around both internal and external funding for Whitefield. Some of the ideas were establishing funding from Universities, large companies, government funding and lottery funding.  

 

Then we looked at the partners and how they can build up their connections with people. We came up with 7 key partners that we felt would be great for Whitefield build connections with such as educational bodies can be able to send more teachers with disability expertise. The list was large Mac’s, educational bodies, existing bodies, local businesses, national governmental bodies, global associations and finally local governmental bodies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting with Nick

 

Even though we were at the right lines of the project however nick believed that it would more beneficial of presenting our solutions by presenting them in business models. He said for us to create 2 or 3 business models examples by showing what its uniqueness, challenges, and suggestions to the clients, creating resources and the overview of it. The reason behind is that it would be very clear of how incorporating our ideas into these business models would look like such as the structure and process. 

 

Business Model Concepts

 

We as group had to develop business that we thought would beneficial for Whitefield. We decided that everyone should create a business model themselves. I did the charity business model and how Whitefield could incorporate charities with their business model. One suggestion was to be able to collaborate with the charities and using them so that they can work with such as having Whitefield students working for them charities. Once we looked at all of the business models, we’ve realised that some of them are fairly similar with each other so we decided to combine and develop a business model around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for the blurry image)

 

We looked at how we should create business model that will help Whitefield move forward into ensuring the best possible services for their students. We decided to create business model around non-franchise and franchise. The non-franchise would not have the project search and they will create their own framework or method of dealing with their students and also looking at the possible ways of getting funding. The franchise model will consist of having partners working with them and also possibly building a base in Europe for project search.  We decided to allocate people into 2 groups, I went into the non-franchise which also consist Nefy, Lee, Ben, Alex, Hanea and Sophie. The franchise group consist of Rob, Cameron, Jonny and Hannah.

 

As group we decided that we should create an internal funding business model which says the possibilities of how Whitefield can get funding by charging their students. We discussed whether if it’s ethical for Whitefield to charge their students because what happens if the poorer students could not afford to pay for their education in Whitefield. However we also looked the external funding Whitefield could also receive from external sources such as EU social grants, EU grants and possibly could also from partnerships with them which will then allow to expand their services across Europe.  We also looked at the limitations of the new business models such as the can Whitefield de-franchise or will they be able to get funding from the EU social grants. This was a great way of us to see how to create and develop new business models. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We created as flow chart which shows how Whitefield can go through the process of the business model. Creating these flow chart business models gave us of a more understanding of how to successfully implement business models for organisations or companies.  Through planning and professionalism, the business models gave us an insight of how each step would directly affect the company for example the in the business models they are flexible and adaptable it allows complex concepts to be integrated easily and efficiently. This means that the project can continue to use innovative concepts, ensuring long term success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Models

 

The business models we have decided to create them around franchise and non-franchise because we believed that it was important to show them the possibly of stop using the project search and create their own programme. However if they do still want to use the franchise, then they could possibly partner up with big companies and also create European base in Europe which both beneficial for them and for the company in America.

 

The first model that we created was the ‘Self-funded model’ for the non-franchise approach for short term. Whitefield receives funding from student loans and research, collaborates with London based companies and Universities. They are then approached by local and mature students if they want to go to Whitefield. They carry out the selection matrix. The matrix with show which ones that have specialist skills and they may be supported to start up their own business and the others will undergo job matching tailored to their specific skills. This creates an opportunity for all of them to enter full time employment. The support will be provided to Whitefield through University volunteers. Also Whitefield will offer additional support for the parents.

 

This mid-term model is that Whitefield expands throughout the UK and Europe. Have students are assessed in terms of their motivations to be in the school. There will be an added Training feature in this model to ones that might want to develop their skills further. They will have the opportunity to work within multi-national companies or small/medium enterprises. This model also adds a mentor at the end of the process by providing an on-going support.

 

The final the long term model is developing their own recruitment agency to reach out to and potentially being approached by a wider range of students. This long term model also offers the opportunity to work for Project Search and be included into employment within Whitefield itself.

 

Whitefield as a charity Business Model

 

1) The student goes through an initial assessment to get into Whitefield programme

1.5) They receive gov funding / sponsorship to pay the fees

2.0) Once in Whitefield, they undergo thorough assessment identifying their interests and skills making it personally tailored to them

2.5) They undergo training programme

3.0) From this, skills are identified and put towards employment search

3.5) This is within either

                        a) large companies

                        b) self employment

                        c) self employed alumni

4) These could feed back into Whitefield eg. Large company funding, alumni support

5) They become alumni themselves and can feed back into support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concept Ideas

 

Here are the ideas that we can came up which we think will help inspire Whitefield to grow and expand in the near and distant future. Creating the ideas, we believe that Whitefield would benefit a lot and will help them to provide better services for their customers. Here is the list of concept ideas that we came up throughout the project:

 

1.  Assessment Matrix

2.  Self-Employment

3.  Recruitment Agency

4.  Second Chance

5.  Evidence Portfolio

6.  Parent/Family Support

7.  Mentor system

8.  On-going Support

9.  Colleague/Manager Support

10.  University Collaboration

11.  Student Loans

12.  Government Funding

13.  Expansion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

This project was mostly looking into the planning/professionalism and methods/communication knowledge strands such as looking into the business models and creating new services that they could provide to their students. Creating the business models allowed us to see how our concepts ideas would work for example in one our ideas of the students going through a assessment matrix gave us a brief overviews of what the process will look like. Another example is how the whole business model will look if they worked as a charity. When creating these concepts we had to look at the benefits of creating these new services for them by looking at they can be able to provide the best services to their students. Also at the early we did use some ideation methods from last semester of coming up with ideas such as the 30 second ideation.