Young entrepreneur provides 1,000 hours of work experience for students at City College
City College Norwich student, Sam Brown, 23, left, who has helped organise over a 1000 hours paid work experience for catering and hospitality students, with one of the students, James Neal, 17. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: copyright: Archant 2014
A Norwich student is celebrating after his social enterprise provided students at City College with more than 1,000 hours of paid work experience.
City College Norwich student, Sam Brown, 23, right, who has helped organise over a 1000 hours paid work experience for catering and hospitality students, with one of the students, James Neal, 17. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: copyright: Archant 2014
Devour was created by Sam Brown, a culinary arts student at the college, which employs catering and hospitality students.
Now celebrating its first birthday, Devour has so far employed 75 students working a collective total of 1,036 hours and has paid out £7,480 in wages.
Sam, 23, from Norwich, recognised that although students are provided with work experience as part of their course, there was a demand for more paid opportunities.
'I wanted to bridge the gap between education and employment and provide students with a new experience which places them outside their comfort zone,' he said.
City College Norwich student, Sam Brown, 23, who has helped organise over a 1000 hours paid work experience for catering and hospitality students. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY - Credit: copyright: Archant 2014
Originally, his target was to achieve the 1,000 hours by December, but he has since increased it to 2,000 hours.
Devour's success led Sam to secure funding from Unltd, an organisation providing support for social entrepreneurs.
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He has used the funding to start his own café, Café Devour, in the College's StartUp Lounge.
Sam hopes the base provided by his new venture will allow him to offer advice to students about the mechanics of running a business.
He said: 'The important thing for me is student development.
'Devour gives me the opportunity to interact with students and give them tailored advice and guidance on how to run an enterprise.'
Long term, Sam hopes to continue growing the Devour brand and plans to open more cafés in the future.
He said: 'I want to increase opportunities across the whole college, not just the catering department.
I think Devour is a unique idea and want to continue developing it.'
Do you know a student we should feature? Email locallife@archant.co.uk
