Business students at Furness College are planning a town centre that meets young people’s needs.

It comes as part of the college’s partnership with Barrow BID for a two-week virtual work experience programme.

The students are tasked with creating proposals focused on young people for a town centre event, a new product or service shop or to regenerate a derelict piece of land.

Colin Garnett, from Barrow BID, has worked alongside the college’s business development lead Keith Holmes on the project.

Mr Holmes said: “This is our first ever VWEX – acting as a pilot – which is very exciting and showcases the college as one of the first in the country to host and design their own programme.

“We have a whole cohort of students collaborating every day to support local businesses and we can’t wait to see the results and better still, start to implement them.”

All 13 students, who are on the business administration course at Channelside, will pitch their ideas to Barrow BID management, where a small VWEX panel will determine the best overall project, best project presentation and most valuable student.

The winners will be announced on Friday February 12.

The programme has seen guest speakers, including Barrow MP Simon Fell, talk to the students.

Mr Fell spoke to the students via Teams on the subject of business environments, drawing on his own experiences.

He said: I really enjoyed speaking to these students about working in business, the importance of understanding the environment you are operating in order to turn an idea into a successful product and why robust debate is an important part of working in business or politics.”

Other speakers have included Lily Piachaud, New Constellations, Claire Croskery, Furness College, as well as a Q&A from Stuart Klosinski, S and T Klosinski Economic Development Consultants Ltd.