Cirrus Logic team use everyday business skills to support young social entrepreneurs

For Social Enterprise Academy, September marks more than the start of a new term. It’s the beginning of another cycle of the Social Enterprise Schools programme – a year-long journey that will see pupils identify a social or environmental problem they care about, build a business to solve it, and pitch it to a panel of real Dragons.

Along the way, they’ll grow in confidence, commercial know-how, and in their conviction that they, too, can change something in their community.

As one cycle closes and a new one begins, we wanted to pause and reflect on the success of last year’s program made possible through our partnership with Cirrus Logic.

Their employees showed up as business mentors and Dragons, giving their time, their expertise and their belief in these young people – the ingredients that turn a good idea into a functioning, trading social enterprise.

The Social Enterprise Schools Year, in brief

Every school on the programme follows 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.

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.

Cirrus Logic: building something new across four boroughs

Cirrus Logic’s mentors and Dragons supported 230 young people this year, helping launch 20 social enterprises across 19 schools in four London boroughs: Barking & Dagenham, Ealing, Havering and Lambeth.

Six social enterprise groups were mentored directly by the Cirrus Logic team, and the issues and ideas that the young people came up with were broad and brilliant as ever.

Young people from All Saints created a cultural cookbook; bringing together recipes from the diverse cultures represented within their group and school community and promoting wellbeing through food and shared experience.

Pupils from Drapers’ Maylands School built handmade bird feeders to encourage recycling and support environmental action.

Students from Corbets Tey set up a weekly tuck shop designed to tackle food insecurity within their local community while building skills for the future, serving homemade soups and jacket potatoes.

Pupils from Barking Abbey came up with BasketBin; fun, interactive bins that encourage young people to dispose of their waste responsibly, helping create cleaner shared spaces and inspire positive environmental action.

The young people led the development of their businesses whilst they were guided by the Cirrus Logic volunteers, and both groups noted how they were inspired by the other. The young people grew confidence as they formulated their business plans and pitches under the guidance of their mentors, and the Cirrus Logic mentors were inspired by the passion and creativity of the groups they assisted.

In their own words

“I am developing confidence in meeting and greeting new people and I am learning how to do stock-taking and orders for the business.” — Pupil, Corbets Tey SEND School, Havering

What it meant to Cirrus Logic’s volunteers

Every single Cirrus Logic volunteer said the opportunity benefited both themselves and the young people they supported.

“You could see the sales skills the young people had developed live in action at the Dragons’ Den, which was very inspiring.” — Dejan Ostojic, Cirrus Logic