Colin Jackson helps Cronton Sixth Form business students launch a new product

On Friday 30^th March, Olympic champion Colin Jackson accompanied Paul Ward, the Director of local company Paragon PE to the launch of a new product at Cronton Sixth Form.
A team of students, all studying on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Business have been working with local business man Paul Ward on a Student Trade project in a partnership between Paragon and Cronton Sixth Form. 
The students were given the task of rebranding a waterless body wash and they set about creating a name for the product as well as a new smell, colour and label with the aim of selling it to festival goers.  A facebook page was set up and research was done through college and social media polls, providing the students with lots of opportunities to put their business theory work into practice.
The new product is called H2NO and on Friday it was launched to local press, business people and VIP’s with the help of Colin Jackson.  The students hosted a formal presentation followed by a networking event at the same time as H2NO goes on sale through Amazon at the fantastic price of £1.00 for a limited time, with plans to sell it on the high street.
Colin Jackson said, “I have heard lots about the H2NO project and can see that everyone has been inspired.  It has been really nice for me to be able to come to Cronton Sixth Form College today, to meet the students and to see it all myself.”
“I think that the link between sport and education is very important, I always try to get involved and have set up a number of projects myself. Attending the launch event is great as it is important that students get to see the final product to any project, whether in sport or business as the process and hard work involved is always the same.”
 Student Xavier Ho, previously from Halewood Centre for Learning, who was on the H2NO team said, “This assignment has been really good and I have learnt so much whilst designing a real product for the real world.  Paul Ward has inspired us all and has given us a fantastic experience for the future.  I have really enjoyed meeting Colin Jackson at today’s launch and I didn’t expect the whole project would it would turn out so big.  This has been a great opportunity to put theory into practice I am looking forward to seeing the product in the shops.”
Claire Colligan, Business tutor at Cronton Sixth Form said, “It has been great to give the students a real life experience as part of their course, and the project has been a huge success.  All of the students have really impressed me with their enthusiasm. I would like to thank Paul and Andrew Ward from Paragon for all of their support and for Colin Jackson for the inspirational talk to the students.  The product will be on sale in high street retailers soon, keep your eyes peeled.”
Paul Ward,  MD of Paragon PE Ltd and creator of Student Trade said, “At Paragon we believe it is important to work with students as they are the future of business and we have developed ‘Student Trade’ to help students get real business experience by working with them and passing on our knowledge. The Students at Cronton Sixth Form have been great, they have all engaged in the development of H2NO and all parties have learnt something from this project.  We are delighted that Colin Jackson has shown his support for Student Trade and would like to thank him for talking to the students at Cronton Sixth Form today.”