Bonfire night has been and gone, there are less than 50 days before Christmas, the wellies and hoddies are out of the cupboard – this can only mean one thing – the Enactus training weekend in Grantham. Now before I carry on with this blog you will need to know what the weather is going to be like, but come rain or shine one thing that is guaranteed is a fantastic weekend.

Whether you are a seasoned regular to Grantham or this is your first experience it is one of the highlights of the Enactus calendar. Having experienced a few of these weekends I thought I would give you all a few pointers (especially the first timers) to help you get the most out of the weekend. Please do feel to add anything on that I have missed off in the comment section below.

So in no particular order here are my top 10 hints and tips to make the most of the Enactus training weekend:

1. Meet the World Cup Runners up: if you want to learn from the best then make sure you meet the Southampton team. To accomplish what they did in Mexico this year was a great achievement and you should all be connecting with the team to find out about their experience and how they have accomplished so much.

2. The outdoors: take plenty of warm clothes! This is all I am going to say on the subject!

3. Network with your peers: you all have a so much in common and want to transform lives, who better to share best practice with! You can learn so much from each other by sharing ideas, celebrating success and solving any challenges you and your team has.

4. Develop your confidence: this weekend if nothing else will completely transform you as an individual you will see yourself become more confident over the 3 days and you will wonder why you were so nervous about going and if you were going to enjoy yourself.

5. Enactus Alumni: sustainability is crucial to the success of any business and the Enactus alumni certainly reflect this. Make sure you introduce yourself, ask for hints and tips and what they learned from their enactus experience and how they have made the most of the weekend in the past. You will find them usually chilling out, ensuring Jim has everything under control!

6. Make the most of employability day: yes the weekend is fun but do not underestimate the importance of the employability and skills day. You will learn so much about employability skills and what you can do to stand out from the crowd during the graduate recruitment process.  From the careers fair to experiencing an assessment centre to the 1-1 interview use this time as a way to build on these skills  employers are giving up their time to help you!

7. Talking of employers – network, network, network: this is your time to impress and build relationships with graduate employers who are looking to hire the brightest and the best onto their graduate and placement programmes. You will have the opportunity to network and meet some of the biggest graduate recruiters in the UK so make the most of this opportunity. Ask for business cards, connect on LinkedIn, this is your opportunity to shine!

8. Develop your team work skills: this is one competency that you will certainly be able to give examples of in future interviews, you will not only be working on the relationships in your own teams but will be working with other Enactus team to do all sorts of activities that will require great teamwork and communication skills in order to succeed.

9. Have fun, fun, fun: if you make the most of this weekend you will not only have great ideas to make your Enactus team even more successful on your return but you won’t stop talking about the weekend to your friends and family!

10. What have I missed? The bonfire, the formal dinner, the activity course the dorms there is so much more I could talk about but I will leave you to find this out for yourselves.

I couldn’t end this without mentioning social media – Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be out in force with their tablets and phones taking lots of pictures so make sure you follow us on Twitter for more hints and tips and some great morning after pictures!

Find out more about our graduate and placement programmes here.