In September 2025, Matthew Gazzard, Sandra Sampson, Luke Turner, and Katie Ovenden attended Exeter University as part of the Amazon Team Challenge. Employees from Amazon depots across the UK took part in the course, working with the university to gain their HR level 5 Apprenticeship.
The challenge
To kick things off, we presented the students with information about Goonvean Group and set the brief for their team challenge – to create an environmentally focused staff engagement activity. This activity would need to:
- Be aligned to the Goonvean values: Caring, Connected, Courageous.
- Fit within a set budget.
We then held focused Q&A sessions with each of the participating groups, helping them understand a bit more about the Group and what we do.
On day two, Sandra and Katie returned with some questions of their own for the students. They wanted to understand more about the ideas each group had before watching the final project presentations.
The winners
The winning team came up with the Bloomvean Initiative – a fantastic concept, outlined with a clear and well put together presentation.
It was certainly a mutually beneficial day for the members of Goonvean in attendance. Putting these enterprising students through their paces and seeing the broad range of ideas they came up with, in such a short space of time, was hugely inspiring. Who knows what the future might hold for them?
