While other companies might spend thousands of pounds on advertising agencies, Gosport Business Centre took an innovative approach to its summer campaign by asking Portsmouth's Education Business Partnership to recruit secondary school students for their marketing ideas.

Year 9 and 10 students from Brune Park Community College were recently given the opportunity to test their entrepreneurial skills after being challenged to create material for the promotional activity of Gosport Business Centre. The pupils were asked to design posters, leaflets and think of ideas for both animation for the centre's reception plasma screen and an audio advertisement for local radio.

During a tour of the buildings, operated by national office space company Basepoint, on behalf of SEEDA, the students met tenants from the variety of businesses housed within the centre to gather information and understanding of the complex. Supported by one of the EBP's Business Ambassadors, Jo Parker from Business Link, the teams then went on to apply both their creative skills and understanding of business to raising awareness of the centre.

"It wasnt easy ," said Leah Duery, a Brune Park student in Year 9. "We had to work within Gosport Business Centre's existing colours and corporate identity and really think about what would attract people to having their business here."

"It was a great opportunity to get a really fresh approach to looking at the centre," said Centre Manager, Andrew Weston who was presented the ideas by the teams of students. "It was interesting to see the aspect of our facilities that caught the teams' imagination and the things that made a real impression on them. There were some fantastic ideas that I know Head Office will love."

"Students always enjoy being brought out of the school environment to experience the real world of business," says Suzanne Lewis, EBP Co-ordinator for the project. "Excercises such as these bring their studies to life and give them a much better understanding of life after education,"