Youngsters from 16 schools from across County Durham took part in a Dragon’s Den style competition recently, with pupils from Wolsingham School and Community College winning the Be Enterprising’s Enterprise in Education competition with their prom organising business, Prom Daze.
More than 100 pupils, aged 11 to 18, took part in the competition at Durham Town Hall on Wednesday, July 8th, including youngsters from King James I Comprehensive, to pitch their enterprising projects to eight local business experts.
As part of the day, the Town Hall was transformed into a retail centre with mini market stalls where pupils were able to sell their products and services to members of the public.
The judges, which included Tony Coyle, manager of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at Durham University, saw a range of promising businesses including a group of youngsters that were growing and selling vegetables, a range of reflective clothing and accessories for joggers, walkers and runners and a soap making company.
The King James pupils, Matthew Northgreaves, Rebecca Iveson, Isaac Bainbridge and Iglika Kineva set up a photography business where they took, printed and sold their own photographic prints.
Enterprise in Education, run by Durham County Council’s Children and Young People’s Services, aims to inspire enterprise among young people in some of the most deprived areas of County Durham. The programme is funded by Be Enterprising, the county’s Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI), which was created to inspire enterprise and bring about positive and measurable changes in the employment hotspots of County Durham’s former districts of Derwentside, Easington, Sedgefield and Wear Valley.
Mr Coyle said, “We were very impressed with the quality of both the business ideas and the pitches that were put forward. The pupils have obviously worked hard to find practical products and services that have consumer appeal.
“The competition is a great initiative and we hope it inspired some of the pupils to think about setting up their own business and that they can see it as an achievable and fulfilling aspiration.”
The pupils also took part in a Young Enterprise competition on the day where they all established the same sideline business and a prize was given to the team that made the most profit. Primary school pupils from across the county will shortly be competing in a similar competition.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
