Toot Hill Academy benefits from Marketing expertise - Feb 2008 (as featured in Public Report 2006 - 09)

Young People

Business Champions Help Develop Model Academy

Self-development has been placed at the heart of a specialist Academy for arts and business after gaining expert tuition in marketing.

The commitment and insight of two elite Business Champions has helped Nottinghamshire’s Toot Hill Academy to identify a clear plan for the future that will help forge greater links with the community and local businesses while marketing themselves as an ideal business model.

The Academy is part of Toot Hill School, a well-established educator of young people based in Bingham. The Academy was established in 2003 and specialises in business and the arts, helping to develop the creativity, enterprise and talents of hundreds of people of all ages through their programme of dedicated business and art courses.

The Academy contacted Business Champions – a programme funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) - to see if they could provide a member of their taskforce of business volunteers with an interest in education to assist in the development of the school’s own skill set and enhance its offering to the local community.

They were provided with a vast array of potential Champions who were keen to help, from which they selected Barrie Pierpoint, former chief executive of Leicester City Football Club and managing director of bp Management and Marketing Services, and Paul Drakes, director of marketing communications agency 23red.

The Champions have seized the opportunity with both hands, working alongside Toot Hill’s business and community links co-ordinator Fiona Farmer to create a more recognisable business structure, identifying avenues for the Academy to progress at regular strategy and development meetings and also offering their time to inspire students to get involved in business through talks and events.

Fiona Farmer comments: “Barrie and Paul have both dedicated a lot of time and expertise to look at what Toot Hill currently offers. They have really taken us under their wings inspiring us with boundless energy and enthusiasm to give us an insight into how we can build on our qualities, develop ourselves and provide even more to the local community and businesses.”

Paul’s primary focus has been to look at how the Academy can develop the business product. He has suggested how the Academy can create greater links with both local and national businesses, opening up his little black book of contacts so that students can benefit from placements and insights into business environments and also see how Toot Hill can help local businesses with their own training needs.

He has even established an award to motivate students, offering the winner an opportunity to visit his London offices to see how the marketing industry operates.

Barrie has been looking at the Academy’s role within the local community and links with local businesses and organisations. His starting point has been to set Fiona achievable tasks and targets to assess the range of courses offered by Toot Hill, then assisting with market research within the local community to identify demand. This will be used to inform the marketing plan and assist in the development of sponsorship packages to fund the production of a brochure that will detail all that the Academy has to offer.

But its offering does not just stretch to courses. While looking at Toot Hill’s qualities Ann Price, director of the Academy, and Barrie have found that the school is recognised nationally for its achievements in providing such a diverse and successful range of courses.

Barrie comments: “This has now provided us with the fantastic opportunity to market Toot Hill as a business model for other education establishments to follow.”

Fiona adds: “The future is really bright for Toot Hill. Our Business Champions have shown us how to create a more business-oriented mindset, which will ensure our growth and development and reinforce our role as an active and committed provider of ongoing learning to our local community.”