Students from Harborne Academy in Birmingham celebrate being crowned champions of the West Midlands as they go on to represent the region in The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Challenge National Finals 2019. They successfully fought off tough competition from the other top four finalist schools in the region; beating pupils from Bartley Green School, Eden Boys – Birmingham, Kings Heath Boys and St Peter’s Academy.
Speaking of their win today at Shoomiths, the students, collectively known as Team Think Twice said:
“Winning today would have never been possible without our mentors for sure. Today is incredible but we don’t feel like complete winners yet. Winning means winning the nationals and bringing the title back to the West Midlands!”
Team Think Twice, Harborne Academy
The students pitched their business ideas, Dragons Den-style in front of highly acclaimed judging panel from a number of backgrounds that included: David Jones, Group Marketing Director – Premier Paper Group, Naheed Afzal, Co-Founder and CEO, Contracts IT Recruitment Consulting and Michael GW Henry, Managing Director – Dubtransmission Publishing.
Keynote speakers on the day was BBC Midlands Today’s Joan Cummins and Prince’s Trust Enterprise young person, Founder of High Vibe, Sophie Rogers.
“It has been such an inspiring day to be a part of. All the students did amazingly well and delivered their ideas with such great confidence and creativity. They should all be very proud of what they’ve achieved.
Sophie Rogers, Founder The Vibe
Returning as Chair of Judges for a second time was Kathy Murphy, Partner Shoosmiths:
Each year its amazing seeing the teams stand up their in front of a room of people they don’t know and deliver with incredible confidence. It takes a lot! There is a lot of energy in the room here today.
Kathy Murphy, Partner Shoosmiths (Chair of Judges)
Harborne Academy will now go on to the final stage of the competition where they will compete against the other top five finalist schools from across the country each representing their region at the National Grand Finals – from the North West, Yorkshire, West Midlands, London, the South East and Scotland. The students will now use the next four weeks to perfect their proposals in a bid to be crowned National Champions of The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Challenge 2019 when they next meet on 2 May. The teams are not only competing for the title but £3000 prize money for their schools
(£500 of which as seed money towards launching their social enterprise idea).
The Enterprise Challenge, sponsored by the Apax Foundation, is an annual, national competition during which secondary school students aged 11-16 years old learn about establishing and running a business. Experienced business professionals mentor and support the team through a business
simulation game, with the highest-scoring team in each region creating their own social enterprise business ideas and pitching them in regional and national finals.
This year 61 schools and over 2500 students in six areas of the UK including the South East, the West Midlands, the North West, in Yorkshire, London and Glasgow have participated.
The Enterprise Challenge National Finals takes place on Thursday 2 May at Hogan Lovells, London.
Follow the competition on #PTEnterpriseChallenge
