31 March 2014
Enterprising students beat off the competition
Some fantastic news from Woking Asian Business Forum and Mosaic
Budding entrepreneurs from Gordons School have been crowned the South East winners in a Mosaic business competition backed by the HRH The Prince of Wales and local business people including entrepreneur and first ever winner of The Apprentice, Tim Campbell.
Hundreds of students from schools across the region have been competing in the Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge since January 2014. Supported by local business mentors, they have learnt to establish and run their own business through their participation in a real-life business simulation game. The five highest scoring teams took part in the regional finals.
The Apax-Mosaic Enterprise Challenge is the flagship programme of Mosaic, an initiative of Business in the Community. Mosaic aims to raise the aspirations of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, through exposure to mentoring and positive role models. Each year, the organisation supports over 650 students in the region through its primary and secondary school mentoring programmes.
The winning team developed a business idea for a new mobile phone App, to help students to support each other through their coursework and exams.
Responding to their win, team captain, Karrun Sharma, said: "It's been an amazing experience, especially meeting someone like Tim Campbell who has built such a successful business. We can't believe that out of 5,000 students in the UK we've won the regional competition and are now going to the national finals!"
The competition took place at the Aspire Centre in Slough. The judging panel included Alan Coates from Heathrow / BAA), Jagdeep Rai of Barclays, Louise Punter, CEO at Surrey Chambers and Farida Gibbs, CEO and partner at Gibbs S3. Speaking at the event, Tim Campbell said:
"Mosaic's mentoring programmes help to develop the skills, employability and self belief among young people from all backgrounds. I'd like to congratulate the winning team from Gordons School who were brilliant. I wish them luck in the nationals and I'm sure that among them we have some business leaders of the future!"
The team will now participate in the high profile national Grand Finals event taking place in London in May. Here they will deliver a Dragon's-Den style pitch to compete for a £2,500 cash prize for their school, and £500 seed fund to start their business idea.
The finals event included 25 students from Slough & Eton College, Beechwood School, Oxford Spires Academy, Gordons School and Langley Academy.
Speaking on behalf of the Langley Academy team, Nicole Blackman, aged 15, said:
"The day was amazing, everyone was so friendly and we felt like we were treated like adults. The speakers were inspirational and funny and Tim Campbell was so down to earth. We've learnt how important networking is. The whole experience has been brilliant and the competition has taught us a lot. We would love the chance to do this again."
The competition is co-sponsored by the Apax Foundation, and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as part of its commitment to enable people able to realise their potential to get on in life, irrespective of their background.
