Pupils taste sweet success in Chocolate Box Challenge

Hereford Cathedral School pupils in Years 7 and 8 enjoyed a product design task with local employers last week.

The Chocolate Box Challenge careers event saw pupils work in groups with employer representatives to devise new chocolate-box products. Each group was given a brief and had to tailor their product ideas to specific requirements, such as overall cost of production, environmental impact, materials, design, target audience.

The aim of the activity was also to help students see how many different professions are involved in producing a finished product.

The employer representatives were from Amcor Flexibles, John Lewis, Barclays, Rebecca Anuwen and Hoople Ltd.

At the end of the challenge, the teams had to present their concepts to the whole group. Examples of finished products included: Chocosaurus - dinosaur themed for younger consumers; Chocoholics - alcohol flavoured to appeal to an adult palate; Eco Chocs - for the environmentally conscious; Cubilicious - fun-filled fruit squares; and Pumpkin Spook - Halloween themed chocolates.

Stephanie Slade, HR Business Partner at Amcor Flexibles in Ledbury said: “I thoroughly enjoyed working with the Year 7 and Year 8 students on the Chocolate Box Challenge, both groups brought enthusiasm and innovative ideas to the challenge as well as consideration to the need of their audience and the environment when designing the boxes.”

She added: “It was refreshing to work with confident students with everyone taking part in the challenge.”