JAMES TAKES HIS PRIZE FOR ENTERPRISE

A HARTLEPOOL teenager with severe learning difficulties has won an award for his outstanding contribution to enterprise.

James Dean, 17, who attends Catcote School Business and Enterprise College in Hartlepool, has won the Young Enterprise North East (YENE) Sir John Moores’ Special Achievement Award after overcoming physical and medical problems to become assistant managing director of his own company.

James has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative condition affecting one in 3,500 males, he uses an electronic wheelchair to move around school and has limited use of his hands, which makes it difficult for him to participate in writing and drawing activities.

However, since undertaking the YENE Team Programme and setting up Supercats, which designs and produces jigsaws and mouse mats, James’ teachers say they have seen a dramatic improvement in his academic abilities.

The YENE Team Programme inspires students aged between 15 and 19 years old with special educational and support needs to work together and set up and run their own real company, guided by a Young Enterprise business adviser.

Catcote School Business and Enterprise College director of specialism Alison Brown said: “Since undertaking the Young Enterprise North East Team Programme James has really developed his academic, social, and emotional well being.

“James finds academic work tiring and needs to be stimulated by activities that help him retain a positive outlook, which is exactly what the Young Enterprise programme allows him to do.

“James has learnt everything from how to set up a business, market research, establishing appropriate selling price to maximise profits, stock control and selling shares. He is very well respected by his peers and is an inspiration to others”.

James is the assistant managing director of Supercats, a business he set up in September 2009 with his fellow students and it is still going from strength to strength.

James has ambitious plans to capture an estimated one million customers by arranging to set up a stall at the Hartlepool stage of the Tall Ships event in August. This will involve working on the business in his own time during the summer holidays.

James designed the company logo, which is used in all literature and marketing materials.

The business showcased its wares at the Young Enterprise North East Trade Fair at Gateshead’s Metro Centre earlier this year, where James sold the company’s products to the public, which made a profit of £65.

James said: “I really enjoy the Young Enterprise programme as I am able to take ownership of something and have a lot of responsibility in the business. It has given me a real buzz for learning and the world of enterprise.”

James has worked with North Shields business owner David Bavaird of Scrap Tyre Exchange who has acted as his business adviser through the programme. He said: “I have been impressed by James’ contribution to the range of tasks and projects and he has demonstrated a sharp mind, problem solving skills and a willingness to learn. James is a credit not only to himself but to the day to day support and teaching he receives from the staff at Catcote School. I have enjoyed working with James and would encourage other businesses to get involved”.

Young Enterprise North East chief executive Catherine Marchant said: “The Sir John Moores’ Special Achievement Award 2010, sponsored by The Specials Laboratory has been awarded to James for demonstrating outstanding achievement and strength throughout the Team Programme. He is a team player and is a true inspiration to others.”

James is now working towards OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) Young Enterprise Team Programme Entry three.

James received his award at the Young Enterprise North East Regional Final.

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/north_east/about_us

RONNIE THE RUNNER BEAN RUNS AWAY WITH TOP ENTERPRISE AWARD

RONNIE THE RUNNER BEAN RUNS AWAY WITH TOP ENTERPRISE AWARD

An evening that toasted the achievements of enterprising students, teachers and the regional business community, saw a team of youngsters from Newcastle Church High School recognised as the star performers.
BrightLife Books, a company set up by year 12 students from the city’s school, walked away with the Company of the Year title after producing two paperback books, 'Ronnie the Runner bean' and 'Sunny the Sunflower' with a global environment and healthy eating theme aimed at children aged three - 11.
‘Live the Rightlife, live the Brightlife, is the motto of this company. The students wrote and produced the books to help young people understand environment and healthy living issues. The books come with sunflower seeds so children can grow their own plants and a ‘Wheel of Good Health’ placemat to teach children about eating healthily.
BrightLife Books launched the product with a joint venture at Ouseburn-based Seven Stories book shop and has also delivered workshops to local school children.
The winners, revealed at an awards ceremony at the Gosforth Marriott Hotel last night, will go through to represent the region in the Young Enterprise National Final in London in July.
BrightLife Books managing director Francesca Thornton said: “Undergoing the Young Enterprise North East programme has been the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done. We have all learnt valuable enterprise lessons and knowing that we have produced something that other people find to be a good product is fantastic.
“We are unbelievably excited to have won the top award at the Regional Final and cannot wait to represent the region at the Grand Final in London. All the hard work has paid off.”
The winners of the Runner Up Company of the Year Award went to Cookii Doh – a company set up by a group of year 10 students from John Spence Community High School in North Shields, that produces high quality t-shirts and hoodies with unique designs for the teenage market.
Cookii Doh is already in talks with Cramlington-based men’s clothing company The Officers Club and is exploring possibilities with high street clothes retailer Next plc and play.com.
As well as representing the region at the National Final to be held in London this July, BrightLife Books will also receive a ‘five to keep your business alive’ business support package from five North East-based service providers.

The prize package includes free accountancy support from North Shields-based Blusky chartered accountants, green office supplies from Ethicalsuperstore.com in Gateshead, PR and marketing support from Newcastle’s award winning PR agency O Communications, an IT start-up package from Darlington-based Resilient Business Systems and a telecoms package free for a year from Eclipse Networks in Gateshead.

YENE chief executive Catherine Marchant said: “Every year I never fail to be amazed by the standard of business ideas from young people right here in this region.

“Their combined ideas highlight the vast amount of entrepreneurial talent that lies in this region – talent that surely must be nurtured and invested in, if we are to generate a lasting entrepreneurial culture in the region and show the rest of the UK that the North East really does mean business and compete on an international level with business across the world.

“The winners stood out as they put real thought into the nature of the product, their business and their market. It’s been a great competition.”
The other two finalist companies that were judged on the day include, Smarty Pants, a company set up by students from Teesside High School, that produces quality audio CD revision guides and online resources for the GCSE science market and Munchkins, launched by a group of year 12 business and textile students from The English Martyrs School & Sixth Form College in Hartlepool, that produces personalised aprons and recipe books for children.

JAILBREAK!

IN aid of Young Enterprise North East, Durham University students Andy Stephenson and Ali Hunsley faked an escape from Durham Prison on 7am on Thursday 10 June with the aim of travelling to New Zealand in just 36-hours with no money.

Dressed as Batman and Robin, the two best friends, took up the challenge in order to raise money for not-for-profit organisation YENE, which help delivers enterprise education lessons to schools and colleges throughout the region.

Andy undertook the challenge to inspire other young students and show them that ‘anything in life is possible’.

Read on to find out, just how far the duo got on their jail break mission…

“Starting off in Durham, we immediately headed to Newcastle Airport via two hitches with commuters in their cars and then took the Metro to the airport. At the airport we approached all of the flight desks but unfortunately didn't get anywhere, so we moved to plan B which was to hitch down to London, Heathrow.

“At Newcastle Central Station we established that trains were ruled out due to insurance reasons from the carrier, which essentially meant that our only way of transport was going to be by road.

“Heading out of the station we managed to hitch in a car with a great guy called Chris from Gateshead all the way down to Heathrow. With such a direct hitch, we made it to Heathrow in great time, arriving by 4pm.

“Our plan was to approach the flight desks and see if anyone could get us on a late flight. Unfortunately all the desks said no but were amused by our costumes and enthusiasm and pointed us towards BA at Terminal five, since one desk told us, 'if anyone can help you, BA can help you'.

“On arrival at Terminal five, we dropped our bags down in the middle of the terminal and took a minute or so to discuss our strategy when approaching the desks. During this time, we attracted a savvy photographer who came over for a bit of a chat. It transpired that he worked for The Times and told us to stay there for two minutes while he went to chat to someone.
As bemused as each other we stayed put and, as promised, the photographer returned a couple of minutes later with someone who introduced himself as David Sanderson, a reporter for The Times.

“After taking a few details about us and our cause, he instructed the photographer to get a couple of shots and then said that they were doing a story on people heading to the World Cup and his editor may be interested in publishing the photo since it was a quirky story.
Just as the journalist was finishing up, another journalist approached us and gave us a tip-off that Victoria Beckham was about to check in for her flight out to the World Cup at the other end of the terminal, and it might be interesting for us to head down there in our costumes and see if she could help us get on the same flight.

“Immediately our hearts were racing as we quickly headed down to the end of the terminal where a couple of journalists and photographers were trying to hide inconspicuously.
After about 10 minutes with Victoria’s arrival imminent, we'd attracted a small gathering of people interested in our costumes. Unfortunately, some of these people interested in us turned out to be security officers who came over and asked us to leave the terminal. So, not wanting to cause any trouble, we regrettably left and headed over to Terminal three instead, determined not to give up.

“In Terminal three, we decided that the best option would be to head for the south coast where we would have the chance of getting over to Europe by boat and then continuing our journey from there.
However, just as we were leaving the terminal, we got chatting to people from Thompson Sport Marketing who were checking people in for the South Africa flight that evening. After explaining our mission and woo-ed by the chance of being featured in The Times, we were pointed in the direction of the duty manager who sounded enthused at the idea of a large PR coup for Thompson in helping charity. She gave us her details and said to call if we made it into The Times on Friday and she would do all she could do to make things happen.

“Despite receiving such a great opportunity, we decided to hedge our bets and still head for the south coast just in case the photo didn't materialise the following morning. We went to Heathrow Coach Station where we were given a free ticket to London Victoria by the duty manager. We ideally wanted Portsmouth but he said if he was doing it for free, this was all he could manage. We took our ticket to London and showed it to the driver on the Portsmouth coach who we then persuaded to take us to Portsmouth anyway.

“After a long day, we decided to catch some sleep on the way to Portsmouth, arriving around midnight. We spotted a 24-hour casino, who we persuaded to let us camp out in overnight.

“Starting early the next morning, we quickly found a newspaper and discovered that unfortunately we hadn't made it into The Times, but instead of hanging our heads, we headed for the ferry port. The ferry companies were unwilling to budge and we couldn't find anyone to put up the ticket price for us, which was quite a low point.

“Picking ourselves up again was hard, but we managed it and we hitched all the way to Guildford and then onto Woking but unfortunately by this point, we were quite late in the day and after thousands of drivers rejecting us throughout the day we decided to call it a day and head back to the North East.

“Despite not getting as far as we originally hoped, we both learnt several valuable lessons that as entrepreneurs we know will help us with our own ventures in the future, these include:

“The power of the media and Twitter in raising the profiles of campaigns such as ours. Thanks to the media coverage we received, we generated a lot of people phoning us up and emailing us support. We genuinely felt motivated to keep going thanks to the levels of support we've received.

“We learnt that failure is nothing to be afraid of. After continuously being turned down or rejected by people we always bounced back and remained positive no matter what people said to us.

“Always have a backup plan! Effective risk management throughout our journey helped us to always be sure of our actions and made us more confident as we knew if we failed, we always had a contingency.

“Luck - you can't bank on it but you have to take full advantage of it when it's there.

“Finally and perhaps most pertinently, is remaining strong through the dark times and reaping the rewards during the high times. We were constantly being turned down by people, which had a huge impact on morale. What we did was always keep a smile on our faces, even when inside all we wanted to do was be at home again. In the end, we made it to Portsmouth in 18 hours without spending a single penny and that's quite an achievement; we'd have liked to get much further but with the current economic climate airlines and ferry companies were unable to help us out like they have done on previous JailBreak missions.”

Andy x

BATMAN AND ROBIN ESCAPE DURHAM PRISON FOR ENTERPRISE CHARITY

TWO Durham University students plan to escape from Durham Prison on a jailbreak-style mission to get to New Zealand in 36 hours with no money – in aid of Young Enterprise North East (YENE).

Andy Stephenson and Ali Hunsley will fake an escape from Durham Prison on 7am on Thursday 10 June with the aim of travelling to New Zealand in just a day-and-a-half with no cash for transport.

The two best friends, took up the challenge in order to raise money for not-for-profit organisation YENE, which help delivers enterprise education lessons to schools and colleges throughout the region.

Andy, who also runs his own business Raise a Tree - an online education game for children - hopes to be a future business mentor for YENE and said he is undertaking the challenge to inspire other young students.

He said: “The point is to show that ‘anything in life is possible’. If we complete the mission, it will give me incredible entrepreneurial and resource skills that I can take into the classroom and use to deliver inspiration to students.

“How far we actually get will depend on the support of the local media, any charitable donations and, of course, good old fashioned gift of the gab. We will utilise all sorts of transport including aeroplanes, cars, trains and taxis and will be collecting money for YENE on our way.

“Naturally we thought it best to undergo this challenge in fancy dress so if you see Batman and Robin on the morning of the June 10 please help them to get to New Zealand.”

Previous winners of Jailbreak have got as far as New York within 36 hours.

People can follow Andy and Ali’s journey via Twitter.com/NZjailbreak and sponsorship can be donated at http://www.justgiving.com/Andy-Stephenson1