This year’s Enterprise Challenge regional winners recently attended a special Bootcamp event in Birmingham to prepare them for the Grand Final on the 17^th May 2017.

Hosted by Founder and CEO of InspirEngage International and former BBC Apprentice contestant Melody Hossaini, the Bootcamp aimed to help teams bond with each other and further develop their core life skills and confidence ahead of their pitches to an expert panel of judges at the Grand Final.

A variety of high-energy and interactive group, individual and exercises were completed throughout the day. Impressed with the commitment and tenacity of the teams, Melody Hossaini said: “It was fantastic to see a room full of so many young and talented budding social entrepreneurs, and a real pleasure to deliver our InspirEngage Bootcamp to help the students. I want to wish all of the teams the best of luck for the Grand Final!”

Yorkshire’s Regional Winners the Dixons Kings Academy found the Bootcamp to be useful preparation for the Grand Final. They said: “We, as a collective group of five students, have learned a huge amount over the past few hours. We thoroughly enjoyed coming into Birmingham and out of our comfort zone. We enjoyed the day massively and we would recommend it to everyone the world over to improve their business acumen and become a more confident person.”

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.

This year’s Grand Final will be held at the London offices of Hogan Lovells LLP, with reggae musician, celebrity chef and successful businessman Levi Roots as the keynote speaker. The judging panel will feature a group of influential entrepreneurs:

• Mohammed Amersi – CEO and co-founder of Emergent Telecom Ventures
• Nick Pickles – Head of Public Policy at Twitter
• Vanessa Arelle – Entrepreneur and Founder of TeenzApp
• Francisco Menjibar – Principal at Apax Partners
• Fadi Itani – Deputy Director General at Qatar Charity UK

The teams competing to win the Grand Final are:

• ‘Team Girl Up’ from Gordon’s School in Surrey
• ‘Team YouTe@ch’ from Skinners’ Academy in Hackney
• ‘Team Healthwise’ from Ladybridge High School in Bolton
• ‘Team Low Cost Compost’ Hodge Hill College in Birmingham
• ‘Team ElektroFit’ from Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford
• ‘Team Holyrood’ from Holyrood Secondary School in Glasgow

The Enterprise Challenge is generously sponsored nationally by Apax Foundation and Qatar Charity UK and supported by Totem Learning.