Asking a seasoned property professional to develop a proposal, run the viability test, create a marketing strategy and then produce the material, inside 4 days from a standing start, would be a challenge of significant proportions for even the experienced.
To ask a class of 16 year olds studying IT, Business and Carpentry (and so property novices), to do the same thing…could have been seen as way too ambitious and quickly been shelved as a step too far.
However not the West London College cohort who may have been new to this world but by day 4, were able to prove they had travelled incredibly far in understanding how the development world works out opportunity and viability for its schemes.
Though the idea was to teach them, the reality is they taught us that application and concentration on the task at hand can result in creative solutions being backed up by research and logic to deliver new opportunities.
There is a different perspective from this group in how we might approach what we do daily and that is a lesson for us all in this business, in not getting to set in our ways.
We certainly felt that the group learnt a great deal more than they thought possible in such short time and that the week was about teamwork and leadership, as well as stretching expectation whilst managing time and output. These qualities are applicable in so many other ways we live our lives.