Mount Pleasant Windmill is a working windmill, bakery and tea rooms in north Lincolnshire. In this video, we see how a wide range of business activities, carried out by a single enterprise, can have relevance for many different areas of the Diploma.
Jayne Fenwick, Business Lecturer, North Lindsey College
Marie-Christine Austin, Owner, Trueloaf Bakery
Steve Williams, Vice Principal, Melior College
Janet Christmas, Lead Practitioner, Franklin College
Kristina Scott, Practitioner, Baysgarth School
Anne Sykes, SSAT Trainer
Jayne Fenwick: Looking at the windmill itself and having a tour around it, It has made me realise how many different areas of the Diploma can actually impact on one small business.
Marie-Christine Austin: The flour goes from the wheat bin down to the chute inside this square box and the feed is adjusted according to the wind. The business shows so many different facets because it is a food production. It is an old traditional way of making flour. Then you have the bakery which is, could be completely separate and you have the catering with the tea rooms and obviously the tea rooms could function without the two, so you still have all the sort of the stuff the catering bay do you know everything to go in that area. You also have the fact that we are a visitors attraction so you have all the travel and tourism coming for people, coming to have a look at the windmill and I do a lot of school visits and work with local schools. So there is all the educational information that there are so many aspects which for us it's a bit difficult to actually sometimes know where to prioritise because the business is running you, there are so many things happening you have to sort of sit down and think okay what is next. When it goes, it goes like a steam engine, it goes really, really, really fast.
Steve Williams: Its quite clear that the owners came here with the vision and a passion and have developed it. I mean this is what we are trying to instill in young entrepreneurs today, to have a vision and to have an idea and go for it. And I am sure they have made mistakes along the way and I am sure they have got a lot to learn in terms of planning for the future so in that context, just from the enterprise alone there is a wealth of experience here that we could tap into.
Janet Christmas: If we can't show them examples of where enterprise dreams have come true then they're not going to apply that learning and understand that learning where as if they could actually see that these people did it, it gives them that motivation. It's also showing them that the're opportunities on their doorstep and a lot of ours don't realise that.
Kristina Scott: And the fact that we could maybe support their local business as well is another added bonus really that we can do that and try and promote in other ways you know the business.
Anne Sykes: The business is in its infancy in terms of e-business from the learners can actually help this employer and this employer can actually take their ideas forward and that's an incredible incentive and motivation for those learners knowing that what they are doing is actually going to be used by the employer and not going to be put on a shelf somewhere.
Marie-Christine Austin: What is good in the Diploma is if you take several sort of aims and objectives of different units you can actually put them together on one side of the business and still use another aspect of the business to tick other boxes. I think yes I think for one business they could see how so many things could come together and I think it's great. I do believe if local employers could be involved in the local education a bit more we would have youngsters who would have a better idea of what is out there on their doorstep and maybe want to become the skilled labour that we don't have. At the minute I would think that we have a lot of youngsters around here who may not want to particularly carry on with their studies and the're going to go to Leeds or Sheffield for a job because they feel there is nothing around here but the local employers don't know which youngsters could fit their own business so well and the local youngsters and their families do not know what the local businesses around are all about.
Janet Christmas: I think would have given me confidence to go to other small employers and say well look this is how we can help you, maybe work together with other businesses and actually do something more community wide rather than just a case study. You might actually be able to link up more and I think that's quite exciting.
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More information
The business encompasses food production using traditional methods, catering, retail and a visitor attraction. The owners already offer school visits and are keen to be involved with education locally, to show young people what opportunities are available.
Delegates at the Inside the Workplace event are impressed by the vision and passion of the owners, and see the motivation that a local success story can provide for learners. There is potential for learners to help with the business’ online expansion - implementing the owners’ ideas and creating real-life benefits for the employer. Delegates are inspired to approach small employers in their own local area and propose working partnerships that go much further than traditional site tours and case studies.
View a video with more background about Mount Pleasant Windmill
