This has to be the ultimate in work experience – setting up and running your own shop.

And the teenagers who have taken over two shops, one in Poole and one in Christchurch, are loving every moment of their taste of the retail trade.

Sixty-five Year 10s from four schools have been involved every step of the way from interviewing for all the posts from manager to assistant, learning about customer service, stock rotation and visual merchandising.

“I think it’s great,” said Macaulay Hemstalk, 15, from Ashdown Technology College, whose first task was to help clean up the vacant shop in Poole’s Kingland Crescent.

The Poole premises is selling stock from Beales, ranging from clothes to pocket-money toys, and its enthusiastic staff come from Ashdown and Glenmoor School in Bournemouth.

In the Christchurch shop in Saxon Square, Twynham School and Ferndown Upper pupils are selling stock from Stewarts, Mountain Warehouse, Living 4 Less of Winton and Haskins.

The City and Guilds Level 2 Retail students made a marvellous start, ringing in £600 through the tills at each shop on the first day of their two-week stint.

“They are putting into practice all the things they have learnt in the classroom,” said Paula Brennan, retail teacher at Ashdown.

“This gives them a sense of responsibility and is bringing out qualities we don’t see in class.”

Manager Nathan Lowe, 15, said: “We are really determined to make this a big success.” And sales assistant Arron Wells, 15, who wants to run his own skate shop, said it was good experience.

Beales chief executive Tony Brown, who opened the Poole shop said: “We’re privileged to be working with these students. I hope the opportunity to put theory into practice will inspire them to consider the exciting world of retail as their first career choice.”