BUSINESS students gained some valuable boardroom experience when they were set a challenge by bosses at a Saffron Walden building society last Thursday. Stepping out of the classroom and into a real-life working environment, students from the Saffron Wald

BUSINESS students gained some valuable boardroom experience when they were set a challenge by bosses at a Saffron Walden building society last Thursday.

Stepping out of the classroom and into a real-life working environment, students from the Saffron Walden County High School (SWCHS) were tasked with finding answers to genuine business problems.

Saffron Building Society welcomed the year-nine and year-12 students, who are studying the school's IT Diploma, into their head office on Market Street.

Director of ICT at SWCHS, Richard Canning, said: "We are very grateful to Saffron for welcoming our students into its offices and presenting them with a challenge for their business enterprise.

"The IT Diploma is centered on application of the students' skills and knowledge, so to have a local business offer a project for our students is absolutely ideal."

Each group was tasked with offering an IT-based solution to the Society's business requirements.

The younger students are designing a package aimed at delivering internal staff training online and the year 12s are have been asked to develop a management information tool.

The students were encouraged to put questions to staff and gain a greater understanding of how the Society runs.

General manager at Saffron, Sara Andrews, said: "We are delighted that we are able to support local students in their studies by setting them a genuine challenge from our working environment. Our staff will be in touch with the students throughout the project and we are hoping to see some creative solutions!"

The students' projects will be reviewed at a business presentation, hosted by SWCHS in December. Saffron managers will then select an overall winner from each group.