Pupils Pitch for Purpose, Powered by SAP
In a school hall in Ilford, a group of students stand in front of a panel of Dragons, pitching a device that could one day help keep young people safe. It tracks the wearer’s location and alerts chosen contacts in an emergency.
A few months earlier, this was just an idea, born from their own lived experience. Now, backed by market research and a plan to manufacture it at a realistic cost, it has a name – Fast Aid – and a pitch sharp enough to win over the room.
Fast Aid is just one of the social enterprises built this year with SAP volunteers standing alongside the students who created it, as business mentors and Dragons.
For Social Enterprise Academy, September marks more than the start of a new school term: it’s the beginning of another cycle of the Social Enterprise Schools programme, and with SAP’s support behind it once again, we wanted to take a moment to tell the story of what that partnership made possible.
The Social Enterprise Schools Year, in brief
Every school on the programme follows largely the same path: schools are confirmed and connected over the summer; pupils learn about social entrepreneurship in the autumn term, identify a problem and ideate a solution; and by December they build an enterprise and begin trading.
In the spring, corporate business mentors join the story, working with teams to sharpen their business models ahead of a Dragons’ Den-style pitch in April and May, where young social entrepreneurs compete for feedback, recognition and seed funding.
But whilst the process looks similar in every school, the outcomes are varied, representing a range of social issues and innovations to tackle them.
The year culminates in the Social Enterprise Academy Awards each July – a chance to celebrate and share just how far these young people have come.
SAP: powering ambition across 33 London schools
In the academic year 2025–2026, SAP business mentors and Dragons gave their time to the Social Enterprise Schools programme, which reached 33 schools across five London boroughs.
Their mentoring supported 180 young people directly, 236 presented to SAP Dragons at Dragons’ Den events, and 16 social enterprise groups were mentored one-to-one by the SAP team.
Beyond Fast Aid, SAP-mentored teams tackled big issues close to home for the young people behind them.
Students from Kingsley Academy came up with Flash Flip, an app that innovatively shows ways to upcycle clothing by sharing designs and ideas for making old clothes loveable again.
Young people from Chiswick High School developed Celestial Flow — storybooks and care packages to tackle period poverty, raise awareness and help people feel confident talking about it.
Case study: Spars Bars, Woodlands Academy
SAP volunteer Deborah worked with an entire Year 4 class during their Business Mentoring session.
The young people shared their passion for helping homeless people in their local area, first identifying a way to support a local shelter by baking carefully researched, healthy oat bars to donate. The class then developed a fundraising plan – a car wash – to fund the ingredients.
Deborah advised the class on how to bring their enthusiasm, passion and confidence into their Dragons’ Den pitch. Spars Bars were awarded joint ‘Winners’ at the Ealing Dragons’ Den, with the seed money quickly reinvested into their Spars Cars car wash to fund more oat bar donations to the Ealing Soup Kitchen.
“I fell in love with Woodlands Primary school! The mentoring session working together felt like a valuable opportunity for them to organise their ideas and test them out.” Debs Phethean, SAP Business Mentor for Woodlands
The impact on young people and teachers was clear:
“As a SEN school, these types of opportunities [Dragons’ Den] are few and far between — working with Social Enterprise Academy and the mentors and Dragons on days like this allows our young people to hone certain key skills for future employment.” Amy Nessa, Teacher, Little Heath School
“One of the most important things I’ve learned from this experience is what the mind is capable of when you put it to use. I’ve seen so many good ideas that could turn into amazing businesses.” Pupil, Ilford County High School
What it meant to SAP’s volunteers
The impact ran both ways. SAP volunteers consistently said they loved the experience and came away from mentoring sessions wanting to do more, telling us they felt they’d genuinely contributed — and felt good celebrating that impact.
“I really enjoyed taking part last week with a visit to Greenwood Primary in Ealing and volunteering as one of the dragons with the Social Enterprise Academy. The children and teachers had done an incredible job — the pitches were so thoughtful, well structured, and full of detail. I was genuinely amazed by the level of creativity and insight from children of this age.” Sue Hepwood, Head of Services Sales, UK and Ireland, SAP
“Leveraging the skill of sales for good was incredibly moving — seeing social enterprise in action, not just words, left me with faith in humanity and what the future of the workforce will look like.” Adrian Anthony, Senior Account Executive, SAP
A new chapter begins
Across the partnership, the numbers tell part of the story: 33 schools, hundreds of young people, and social enterprises tackling everything from safety and sustainability to period poverty.
But talk to any of the teachers, mentors or pupils involved, and it’s clear the real impact is harder to measure.
It’s in the Ilford students who turned a safety device into a working prototype and a winning pitch, in the Year 4 class in Ealing who traded homemade oat bars to help their local homeless shelter, and in the volunteer who came away with, in their own words, renewed faith in humanity and what the future of the workforce will look like.
To SAP, and every one of their volunteers who gave their time as mentors and Dragons this year: thank you. You didn’t just help these young people build businesses – you helped them believe they could.
As the new academic year begins and a new cohort of pupils starts to dream up their own social enterprises, we can’t wait to see where this next chapter takes them – and we’re excited to keep building it together with SAP.
Get involved
Interested in bringing your organisation’s employees into the next cycle of Social Enterprise Schools? Get in touch with our team:
