A team of students from the University of Bath is using social networking technologies to bring the foreign penpal experience into the 21st century.
They have won a national business award for setting up a new website designed to help language learners across the UK.
Languagepartner4u.com gives enthusiastic linguists the opportunity to chat online and practice their skills outside the classroom, and raises funds for charity through a 1p per day access charge.
The site has raised £3,000 for The Prince’s Trust and was chosen as the most sustainable business in a competition for student entrepreneurs called Profitunity! organised by Ernst & Young and The Prince’s Trust.
Twenty-five student teams across the UK were given £500 start-up funds, a business mentor and five months to launch a business, with all profits going to The Prince’s Trust.
Jenna Brown, project leader of the Bath Solsbury team, a 19-year-old second year economics student, said: “It’s a massive achievement for us to win this award. It’s been a fantastic learning experience. We’ve set up a number of successful commercial partnerships and the site has been accessed by people in over 90 different countries. We’re now discussing how to take it forward.
“The idea for the site came out of a study visit to China, where it’s quite common for people to have ‘language partners’. In China they do it face-to-face but when we researched the idea we decided there was a great opportunity to set up a new on-line partnering service.”
Jenna’s teammates are economics students Luke Casey and Stephen Chase, and International Management and Modern Languages student Jason Dehart. A second team from the University, called Essence, also made it to the finals for its sumo wrestling competition for students in velcro suits.
Peter Matthews, Profitunity! sponsoring partner at Ernst & Young, said: “The teams’ creative flair and ability to adapt to difficult circumstances shone through this year against the backdrop of a difficult economic background.
“Our teams should be enormously proud of themselves. They’ve raised much-needed funds to help less advantaged young people gain access to vital practical and financial support to get on in life. At the same time, they’ve gained a real insight into what is needed to drive a successful business.”
Tara Leathers, senior head of corporate development at The Prince’s Trust, said: “Profitunity! harnesses the creativity of the student population to help us change the lives of hundreds of disadvantaged young people. Each week we need £1m to continue our work helping young people to get a foot on the career ladder. We’ll be able to help many more young people achieve their potential as a result of the students’ efforts.”