Duke’s Aldridge Academy students took part in an Enterprise Competition finding out how teamwork contributes to the success of a City financial business.

Alongside four other London schools the Duke’s team met with volunteers from First State Investments at their central London offices explored how factors such as time constraints may impact the approach to Teamwork and then applied this as their tasks varied during the day in an event organised by Enabling Enterprise.

Students had the opportunity to quiz the volunteers about the skills they use every day at work and to find out about their roles within the dynamic organisation, before touring the premises. This included a visit to the trading floor which was the perfect way to introduce the core challenge – taking on the role of stock market traders. As the teams learned about different companies and attempted to make the best investments for their client, they also explored the importance of the skill ‘Staying Positive’ and developed strategies such as using positive language to support and motivate other team members.

Students also learned about the research done before investing in resource operations, such as mining. The marketing department answered questions about how they collaborate and use their Creativity skills.

“They were all outstanding teams. They showed different strengths and varied approaches to the tasks and all of these were very well reasoned with an effort to ensure the entire team agreed. It was a pleasure to welcome each of these students to First State and I would not be surprised to see some of them applying to work here in the future!” a member of the First State Investments team said afterwards.

One of the students concluded: “When supporting people in your team, it’s all about the tone of voice. People can tell if you don’t mean it, so you have to make sure you say things in a sincere way so people really believe you.”

The day culminated in the teams presenting some of the outcomes of the investment decisions and, more importantly, sharing what skills had been utilised effectively throughout the challenge. The students proudly represented their school and impressed each of the volunteers in their professionalism, enthusiasm and confidence.