YOUNG Achievers from across Dorset were recently given the opportunity by Toastmasters International to improve their presentation skills before taking part in the Young Enterprise competition. The event, hosted by J.P. Morgan, was attended by over 30 young people from 12 different schools.

The young people came from 9 different Young Enterprise companies, all hoping to improve their skills and confidence in public speaking. Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization developing public speaking and leadership skills through practice and feedback in local clubs since 1924.

Toastmasters helped the achievers understand how to keep the audience engaged and tips for a great presentation, which has seen 6 of the companies who attended succeeding in being awarded a place at the County final.

Shirley Thompson is the current area governor covering local groups Cottonwood Speakers (Bournemouth), J.P. Morgan Chaseside Speakers (Bournemouth), Casterbridge Speakers (Dorchester) and Hamwic Speakers (Southampton), who provided the team of 10 Toastmasters. The masterclass took place at J.P. Morgan in Bournemouth with assistance from some of the J.P. Morgan Chaseside Toastmasters group. Volunteers from Toastmasters and programme advisors led the event for Young Enterprise.

Shirley comments: “It was a privilege to be able to give the young speakers an opportunity to speak in front of an audience, overcome nerves, and build the knowledge of how to communicate for success”.

Phil Paige advises one of the Young Enterprise companies who meet at J.P.Morgan and says “This was a great evening and the feedback from the teams has been fantastic, they’ve already had an opportunity to put their newly learnt skills into practise at the first round of the area competition. This is just another example of a “real-world” skill set that Young Enterprise offers students, one which they may not get to learn within school”.

SwipEase is a Young Enterprise company from Poole High School, their managing director, Scott Campbell attended the event with his company and says “The presentation masterclass was really interesting and proved to be priceless when it came to presenting on the day. The best skill that I learned was how to calm my nerves before talking to a large group of people, this worked perfectly on the day of our presentation!”

Young Enterprise could not offer these opportunities without the kind support of local businesses and organisations such as J.P. Morgan and Toastmasters.