Recently a group of Business students from Levels 1-3 visited Marks and Spencer Head Offices in Paddington Basin. The event invited students from across London to partake in designing T-shirts which M&S will sell in their stores. CWC students Ana Brillantes, Nour Zedek, Peter Besant and Laith Wadi were members of the winning team and will see their design printed on shirts, which were inspired by the 2016 Olympic Games taking place in Rio this summer. 

The students were split into 8 groups with learners from a number of different schools. They were then separated into a further two groups with one focusing on the creative concept for the shirt and the other on the commercial aspect. Each group had to pitch their ideas to several Marks & Spencer managers and Dragons Den panellist Touker Suleyman. 

Level 3 Business student Ana Brillantes who was part of the winning team said, “Our team came up with the idea of using augmented-reality for the shirt, which is something Marks and Spencer have brought out recently. We had the idea to put  #GoingToRio on the design and when someone who has the app holds their phone up to the shirt, it will show the Christ the Redeemer statue.”

“From a teacher’s point of view, they did extraordinarily well,” said Mary Bottomley, a Business and Finance Lecturer who accompanied the students. “Presenting in front of four leading M&S managers was a new and quite daunting experience for them, but they handled it brilliantly.”

“All of the managers were keen to say they were impressed with all of the students and the effort they had put in. They found it very difficult to choose a winner!”