ENTERPRISING Teesside students are in the running to be named Young Enterprise North East’s ‘Company of the Year’ after triumphing in the South Area Final this week.
Smarty Pants, a company set up by students from Teesside High School won the Best Overall Company award at the South Area Final where they pitched their business idea to a panel of judges.
The team will now go on to the Regional Final on 15 June with the chance to be named Company of the Year and represent the North East at the National Final held in London this July.
Smarty Pants produce quality audio CD revision guides and online resources for the GCSE science market. The company is currently seeking endorsement from the AQA examining board and it has already sold 200 copies to Darlington Building Society, who will distribute the product through its Young Savers scheme.
Smarty Pants joint managing director Rachel Goodier said: “We put so much work into our product, and trade stand so to win the Area Final was the icing on the cake. Thank you to Young Enterprise North East and our business advisers who helped us so much, we really appreciate it.”
Students from The English Martyrs School & Sixth Form College in Hartlepool also got through to the next round, with their business idea ‘Munchkins’.
Munchkins, launched by a group of year 12 business and textile students, produces personalised aprons and recipe books for children.
The students hope to target the product at parents to encourage them to cook with their children. They hope to promote in a similar way to Jamie Oliver's school dinners campaign to encourage children to learn how to cook for themselves and understand healthy options. They have already sold a number of the products in their own school and other local nurseries and primary schools.
Munchkins managing director Georgia Wilkinson said; “Setting up our own Young Enterprise company has been a brilliant experience. We have worked well as a team and all the hard work has now paid off by winning a place at the Regional Final. We are over the moon.”
Students from Stockton Sixth Form College were named as runners up and the Best Team Programme award went to students from Catcote Business and Enterprise School in Hartlepool.
The winning teams beat off stiff competition from the other student companies taking part including, ‘Boblania’ from Stockton Sixth Form College, ‘Elftopia’ from Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough, ‘Supercats’ and ‘Free Bikes for Africa’ from Catcote Business and Enterprise School in Hartlepool , ‘EDIT’ from The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough and ‘Green Machine’ from Darlington Education Village.
The schools are all taking part in YENE’s Company and Team (special needs) programmes, which sees students, establish a real company complete with products to sell, targets to reach, a board of directors and saleable shares.
At the Area Final, the students displayed their products and presented their business plans to the judging panel that included, ONE North East enterprise specialist adviser Angela Craggs, Business Link skills adviser Richard Asquith and business coach Peter Wilkinson.
They were judged on the quality of their company report, trade stand and pitch presentation.
Sponsors of the event included, Sunderland Software City, Sabic, Durham Business Club, Darlington Building Society and One North East.
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