A team of young entrepreneurs from Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford has won the Yorkshire Regional Final of the 2017 Enterprise Challenge competition.
‘Team ElektroFit’ beat stiff competition from teams from Leeds City Academy, Mount St Mary Catholic High School, Corpus Christi Catholic College and Swallow Hill Community College, with their idea for a sustainable business that promotes student fitness, and converting that energy into electricity. All finalists had beaten hundreds of students from other schools across the region to reach the final.
The competing teams pitched their ideas in a Dragons’ Den-style event to a prestigious panel of judges, including Ajaz Ahmed; Founder and Director of Legal365; Dr Atif Bashir, Clinical Director & owner of Be Dental Ltd and Co-Chairman Mosaic Scotland; Claire Needham, Audit Director of KPMG; Martin Richardson, Director of Operations at Leeds Building Society; and Faye Savory, Founder of BearHugs.
Team ElektroFit will now progress to the Enterprise Challenge Grand Final in London on 17th May where they will compete against winning schools from the North West, South East, London, West Midlands and Scotland for the chance to become national champions.
The overall winning team will win a prize of £2,500 for their school plus a further £500 to invest in developing their business idea and making it a commercial reality. Previous winners have also enjoyed tea at 10 Downing Street and a unique tour of Clarence House.
The pupils from Team ElektroFit said: “It’s absolutely fantastic that Dixons Kings Academy has come first place at the Mosaic Enterprise Challenge Yorkshire Regional Final for two years in a row. We’re really looking forward to the Grand Final and we would like to thank our mentor, Amir from HMRC, for all of his support. Go Team ElektroFit!”
The keynote speaker for the event was Director of School Speakers and former runner-up on The Apprentice, Claire Young. She said: “The day has been absolutely brilliant. The students have shown great energy, they were really articulate with fantastic ideas. I would hire all of them! It’s amazing for the students to come into a professional environment and gain new experiences. The students exceeded my expectations and hopefully this event helped to raise their aspirations too.”
Leah Larkin, Yorkshire Regional Manager for Mosaic, said: “I was so impressed by all the teams competing in this year’s final. It was a close call but credit has to go to Team ElektroFit. A special thank you must go to our team of volunteer mentors who give up their time to coach, support and inspire the pupils taking part.”
Run annually, Mosaic’s Enterprise Challenge is a national competition that aims to inspire knowledge, raise aspirations, confidence, self-efficacy and long-term employability among secondary school pupils from some of the most deprived communities across the UK. Supported by specialist, volunteer mentors from across the business community, students compete for six-weeks in an online business game where they must develop, market and sell a new product.
