University students took part in the first ever Enterprise Challenge competition to be held in Qatar yesterday.

The Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge has been running for five years in the UK, and is designed to develop and encourage entrepreneurial skills among secondary school students.

For this inaugural Qatar competition, 14 teams from Qatar University, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and Georgetown University took part. The competition was organised by Qatar Shell and Bedaya in partnership with Mosaic.

“This competition aims to promote business knowledge among young people and equip them with practical business skills,” said Wael Sawan, Chairman of Qatar Shell. “We hope this competition will create interest among our young people to become future entrepreneurs.”

“The challenge helps participants develop their business acumen, team work, strategic thinking and exposes them to the full-cycle of the entrepreneurial journey,” said Saleh Al Khulaifi, Bedaya Centre Manager. “This is a great tool to reach young people and get them started on the road to running their own business.”

Team Aggie Engineers from Texas A&M University at Qatar walked away with the first prize. The winning team members were honoured at the GEW Opening Gala Dinner and were presented with their prizes by Wael Sawan and Saleh Al Khulaifi.

In the UK, the next Enterprise Challenge competition will shortly get underway for the 2012-13 academic year, and will work with 80 schools and 3,000 students across the UK. Find out more about how you can get involved