BMW Group UK opened its doors to the College’s business students last week to participate in a workshop on becoming an entrepreneur.

The students were given an ‘access all areas’ tour of BMW’s UK headquarters in Farnborough, where they listened to entrepreneurs’ success stories and took part in a workshop on how to establish and pitch a business.  Students then developed their own business plans, which they pitched to senior executives at BMW.

The entrepreneurs came from start-ups participating in the BMW Innovation Lab 2018, a technology incubator which sees growth-stage businesses develop solutions to improve customer experience and internal processes at BMW.  The Lab is run in partnership with L Marks, a corporate innovation specialist and investment fund, who the students also pitched to.

Gina Finn, Internal Communications Manager, said: “The BMW Innovation Lab has been designed from the ground up to help innovative ideas spread across our business.  We welcomed the students into the Lab to learn from these start-up founders and to hopefully inspire them to become the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

Christine Eustace, Director of Employability and Community Engagement at the College, was delighted with the student’s involvement with BMW: “Today was a fantastic opportunity for our business students to have some real ‘hands-on’ experience in creating a business idea and pitching it to investors.  We would like to thank BMW, L Marks and each of the start-ups for teaching our students what it means to be an entrepreneur – and hope we have inspired some to start their own businesses!”