Mosaic today officially launched the Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge, our national business competition for school pupils, with the support of the Rt Hon Nick Boles MP, Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

This is the fifth year of the Enterprise Challenge, which aims to inspire young people through business. The competition will involve over 3,000 students in 80 schools, supported by more than 300 business mentors.

The launch of the challenge, during Global Entrepreneurship Week, saw the previous year’s winners of the competition alongside Nick Boles MP and Mosaic supporters at Westminster City School. Read all about our previous competition winners and their brilliant business ideas

Before the event, Communities Minister Nick Boles said: “The Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge is an excellent way of enabling pupils to learn practical business skills such as sales, marketing and finance from within the classroom and the opportunities the competition provides will be of huge future benefit. I am looking forward to meeting the youngsters who took part last year to find out what skills and knowledge they gained from the competition.”

Pupils from Southfields Academy won the Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge last year when they invented a wristband which can make payments and be monitored by parents.

Danish Javed, 15, from New Malden, was part of the winning team last year. He said: “Taking part in the challenge has increased my confidence and I am now able to express myself better. The competition has definitely made more interested in business. I want to be an engineer. I plan to work for a company for a while and then one day set up my own business.”

The Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge sees teams of school children compete in an online business contest where they develop, market and sell a new product. The school pupils, aged 11-16, are supported by Mosaic business mentors to learn key components of business such as finance, sales, marketing and production.

The Rt Hon Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government gave his support to the launch, saying: “For five fantastic years the Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge has inspired business knowledge and enthusiasm among young people by allowing pupils to gain real business skills from their classrooms.

“The competition provides pupils with valuable skills and the opportunity to aspire towards a career in business. I am delighted that my Department is supporting this for another year and look forward to seeing some more exciting and innovative ideas.”

The launch of the Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge takes part during Global Entrepreneurship Week (12th-18th November) which this year has set the theme of Pass It On and is being spearheaded by Youth Business International (YBI), part of the Prince’s Charities.

The initiative is supported by Gatehouse Bank, a wholesale Shariah compliant investment bank based in the City of London. As part of the competition launch, Richard Thomas OBE, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, will be leading a delegation of influential business figures and senior leaders, who will come together in a roundtable discussion held at the bank to debate the issues facing young people in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the UK.

As Mr Thomas said: “The theme of Global Entrepreneurship Week is ‘Pass It On’ and the roundtable discussion will focus on how the business community can play an essential role in tackling some of Britain’s most pressing social issues. As a Shariah compliant bank, our entire business model runs on the principles of ethical banking, and supporting social responsibility programmes is a core part of our corporate objective. This is a fantastic initiative, and I’m keen to encourage other leaders to join the programme. In particular, the roundtable discussion will give us the opportunity to pass on our business knowledge to each other and discuss how young people most need our support and encouragement.”

Could you be a business mentor, supporting young people in schools? Discover how you could get involved

Find out how Mosaic is celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week 2012