Students at a Birmingham further education college are getting a close-up feel of business by creating their own Dragons’ Den style company to recycle and resell old furniture from a number of the city’s schools.

The group of eight business students from Birmingham Metropolitan College has taken stock of piles of furniture from local schools which have been rebuilt or substantially refurbished as part of Birmingham’s Building Schools for the Future programme.

The majority of the unwanted furniture, including tables, desks, chairs and even parquet flooring, has come from the old Stockland Green School in Erdington and Broadway School in Perry Barr, together with the former Josiah Mason College building, also in Erdington.

With the help of partners Birmingham City Council and Lend Lease, the students now hope to resell the furniture to other schools, as well as other possible organisations, across the city.

Money received from the social enterprise project will be reinvested in the Birmingham Metropolitan College students, by helping to pay for internships at leading companies as part of their two-year academy course.

The project team, which has taken on actual business roles from operations manager to finance chief, have set themselves the target of raising up to £30,000 by the end of September.

The furniture scheme was initiated by Rita Patel-Miller, business and community development manager at Lend Lease, and Anthony McCourt, chairman of the MET Academy of Business & Enterprise board at Birmingham Metropolitan College.

The Birmingham Lend Lease Partnership, which is the partnership between the city council and Lend Lease, was formed to deliver the city’s building schools programme.

Ms Patel-Miiller said: “There are currently more than 20 schools in the programme including secondary, primary and academy schools, but the project originated from the initial sample schemes which were Stockland Green, Broadway School, and Holte, Mayfield and Lozells schools.

“As a result of the rebuilding and refurbishment of the schools, a range of excess furniture was generated.”

She added: “The city council and Lend Lease identified the opportunity to work with young people to set up a social enterprise to resell this furniture to create a fund to reinvest in the education and learning of Birmingham’s young people.”

Once the idea took hold, Birmingham Metropolitan College was invited to lead on the project, with the added proviso that any money generated from the furniture business would be invested in paying for internships for its students.

The college has set up a warehouse at the former Josiah Mason campus in order to showcase the furniture.

Now in its second year, the college’s MET Academy of Business and Enterprise has already provided more than 50 students with the opportunity to take part in enterprise activities, with many of them going on to full-tiime jobs once they have graduated at the end of two years.

Mr McCourt said: “We are the biggest Career Academy, and the only one focusing on business and enterprise, in the country.

“Once students are in the college, they have to apply to get into the Met Academy. Their course has to have a business focus, and then they can go into the academy if their application is successful.

“The MET Academy is an extra step up the ladder and we hope it will expedite them straight into a full-time job, help with university applications, or encourage them to use their entrepreneurial skills to set up new businesses. It is always oversubscribed.”

The academy provides each of its students with a business mentor for two years, help in preparing their CV, site visits, workshops and lectures from people in industry.

And, between the first and second years, students are placed on six-week internships with leading companies. These will take place during June, July and August.

Birmingham Metropolitan College, which employs more than 1,100 teaching and support staff, recruits around 8,000 full-time 16-19 learners and more than 30,000 full and part-time adult learners every year.

It also works in partnership with a number of major UK employers including BMW, Cadbury, Caterpillar, Sky Digital, and Samsung.

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