Dragons' Den

As part of their final moderation the BA students had to present their business plans in front of a panel of judges in an attempt to pitch for investment.

The panel included Eldridge Cooke who owns a fashion outlet and several barber/grooming shops. Eldridge is also a property developer and a well-respected community leader and social entrepreneur, running a business (SatNavCoaching CIC) focusing on youth enterprise and Roy MacKenzie a Barrister (who used to be a member of Sir Alan Sugar's inner-circle legal team), but is also the Founder/CEO of a successful international corporate serviced apartments business called "London Serviced Apartments", now having global reach.

Congratulations to you all for the great efforts, we hope you found it a valuable exercise. 

The Wise House

Earlier this month owner and 'guvnor' of The Wise House, Lucy Taylor came in to speak to the Graduate Training and BA Programme students. 

Lucy shared her tips on running a small business 'warts'n'all', and talked through her journey to becoming the go-to shop for all things eco friendly. We hope the talk inspired some of you to consider the idea of looking to create your own business idea. 

As students, commuters and office workers, we can all do our bit to make our workplace greener and her products are the perfect way to do so.

As a special treat, Lucy has set up a discount code WISEQUEST10 valid on her products until the 30th April.

Connect Mentors

For the first time we launched a partnership with Connect Mentors to match Mentees seeking insight, access and opportunities to build their personal career paths with employees from progressive organisations (as Mentors).

The speed mentoring event (which was open to all students) was a huge success and included mentors from the following industry sectors:

• Insurance
• Human Resources
• IT/Digital Tech
• Journalism 
• Marketing

If you were unable to attend but would still like to pair with a mentor then click the link below.

Get Matched now and start your Mentorship!

Counter Terrorism Talk

Our central London location gives us fantastic access to a number of exciting opportunities for our students. Another first for Quest was having Senior MPS officers (Rick Warrington and Roy Ellard) come to address our Professional Diploma Programme students earlier this month.

The talk was scheduled as part of their Current Affairs module and enabled the students to get first hand knowledge about counter terrorism strategies and being recruited into gangs.

The guest speakers had prepared a talk on the complexities/sensitivities, preventive strategies and responses to UK terror threats, including a Q&A session.

We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did!

Photoshop Workshop

Following the success of last month's Photoshop workshops (offered to the BA and PA students) run by Amelia Ellis, this month it was the Professional Diploma students' turn.

During the full day workshop they were tasked to use Photoshop to create a new brand concept from scratch. 

Most of the students had never used Photoshop and initially found the task challenging however after getting to grips with some of the basics the end results were fantastic!

Magazine Quest Day

This month the January BAs took part in the Magazine Quest Day. This is one in a series of practical training activities that give students the opportunity to learn more about a particular industry sector through tasks based on real work situations. Quest Days are assessed by experts in those fields. 

Their challenge was to produce a completely new and original magazine. Competencies tested included written communication, analysing and investigating.

Condé Nast

Sarah Baron who works for the Classified Department at Condé Nast spoke to the Graduate Training Programme students about their Advertising Sales Executive Graduate Scheme. This was a great opportunity to find out more about the brand and how to apply for the Graduate Scheme.

PA Club

The PA Club is a networking organisation which hosts events for Personal Assistants and Executive Assistants and provides support for their career. The Director, Charmian Hislop, came in to speak to our PA group.