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

OMG.... No not the Usher song, but Outstanding, Magnificent, Gob ‘smackingly’ great...
Hi my name is Uel J. Readioff from First Aid Today UK Ltd, I was asked to support a Young Enterprise North East event in a small way to help it run smoothly.
Outstanding, Magnificent, Gob ‘smackingly’ great...
That’s exactly what I saw at a Young Enterprise event last month; talent bubbling over, enthusiasm brimming and the biggest proudest grins in young adults I’ve seen in ages.
As an avid supporter of Young Enterprise, I have had 8 years experience working with young adults and this year they have blown me away with their vision, entrepreneurial skills, drive and ambition.
An apprenticeship might just be the answer to an employer’s prayers looking to grow their team.
Often overlooked for their lack of experience young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 are the secret to helping your business success, grow and expand.
Full of fresh ideas, fresh drive and ambition and a real tonic to any team in my eyes. Engaging just one apprentice in your business is enough to help raise staff confidences, morale, your business profile and show your peers you’re a forward thinking company. With young adults, we ourselves remember what it was like to be 16 again.
However, now apprenticeships are being delivered as training programmes that allow a young adult to gain real work experience, study for a qualification and get paid all at the same time.
An apprenticeship is a structured programme of training which gives young adults an opportunity to work for employers learning on the job, building up knowledge and transferable skills that will be needed throughout their working life.
For more information of how you can get involved as a volunteer working with young adults in enterprise contact: janet.woodhouse@yene.org.uk

SMART TEESSIDE STUDENTS WIN YOUNG ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE

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.

Network event success

It was another great turnout at YENE’s Spring Networking Event, hosted by Dickinson Dees at its Quayside office. Over 40 people from businesses across the region gathered to network with fellow supporters and hear our latest news.

We were delighted to have inspirational guest speaker Juliette Lee present ‘Getting Engaged’, sharing inspirational tips and ideas to motivate and re-energise.

David Wilson gave an update on the newly formed YENE Volunteer Committee and board director David Haley spoke of the upcoming Regional Final, which will be held on Tuesday 15 June at the Gosforth Marriott hotel.

It was also great to see four Young Enterprise alumni amongst our guests, all now in successful careers with three of them running their own business.

Business lessons are out of this world

Last week I taught students aged seven and eight at Mount Pleasant Primary School, in Cockerton, Darlington, about business in the community, government and public finance.

The initiative, run under the auspices of Young Enterprise North East, is designed to help children understand how the adult world of business and finance works – and hopefully inspire them to go on to succeed through their own enterprise.

My lessons, run over five weeks, proved such a success that on the children’s final session I brought along Darlington FC footballer Gary Smith with me to present the youngsters with certificates.

I myself am a former human resources (HR) director and senior executive for some of the UK’s best-known companies, including WH Smith, Asda, Royal Mail, Ventura, Pearl Assurance and DSG International. In 2007, the she was recognised for her achievements in Personnel Today’s HR Director of the Year awards and featured in the publication’s Top 40 Powerful People in HR.

Now I run Strategic Change Solutions, a team of change management experts based in the North-East helping companies manage the changes needed to survive the recession, preserve jobs and flourish in the future.

The world of business may seem completely alien to children of their age, but they soaked up every last drop of knowledge and information I could give them about how, as adults, you get a job, earn money, pay tax, and how the Government spends that tax providing such things as the police, fire and ambulance services.

The sessions involved problem-solving, team work, communication and a strong element of numeracy, and I hope that along the way the children have picked up a few life skills that will serve them well in the future.

In truth, it’s been tremendous fun for me. The children have been full of enthusiasm from the first lesson to the last.

The groups I normally talk to groups consist of seasoned businessmen and women, who probably think they seen and heard it all before, but the only difficulty with the children at Mount Pleasant was keeping a lid on their enthusiasm.

Mount Pleasant teacher Karen Bateman said: “It is important that our children learn about the wider community from a different perspective and the responsibility we all share through our life’s work to make it a different and better world. The children loved every minute of Claire’s lessons. At times, they were as much an eye-opener for me as they were for them.”

Claire Walton, Strategic Change Solutions.

STUDENTS BAG THEMSELVES ENTERPRISE TRADING AWARDS

Students from John Spence Community High School in Tyne and Wear scooped the Overall Winner Award with their company ‘Cookii Doh.

NEWCASTLE students swept the board at the annual Young Enterprise North East (YENE) Trade Fair, where they were awarded by the standard of their business ideas and selling skills.

A record 44 student companies, who have set up their own businesses as part of their Young Enterprise programme set out their stalls at the Metro Centre last weekend to compete in the seven award categories.

The young tycoons all took part in the Young Enterprise Company, Team (special needs) or Graduate programmes, which saw them set up a real trading company, sell their innovative products to the public and learn all about business in the process.

Students from John Spence Community High School in Tyne and Wear scooped the Overall Winner Award with their company ‘Cookii Doh, which designs and prints bespoke t-shirts and badges.

Newcastle University graduates won the Best Graduate Programme category with their business ‘Queen Bee Candles’, - an eco friendly candle making company that also raises money to 'save the bees'.

The Most Creative Company award went to students from Newcastle College who set up ‘Button your Face’ - a company that designs and prints coloured textiles that cover buttons and turns them into jewellery. Students from Newcastle Church High School won the Best use of Sales and Marketing award for their promotion of their business ‘Bright Life Books’.

Northumbria University students won the Best Trade Stand category, ‘Wooden Spoon’ set out their stall with a student cookbook, which includes recipes that take a twist on classic student meals.

Students from Oakleigh Gardens school in Cleadon, South Tyneside scooped the Best Team Programme’ Award with their company, ‘Del Boy Enterprises’, which produces handmade fridge magnets, jewellery, bookmarks and tea lights all for just £1.00.

Taking an award for south of the Tyne was students from Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough, who won the Best Product award for their business ‘Elftopia’, which has designed a children's game to encourage healthy eating and lifestyle.

The companies were judged on their business models on the day by members of the local business community including, ONE North East’s Enterprise Specialist Adviser Angela Craggs, Kristina Henry from the Home Group and Peter Wagstaff at Coutts banking.

Speaking of the event, chief executive of Young Enterprise North East Catherine Marchant said: “The Young Enterprise Trade Fair is always a day I always look forward to. It is just lovely to see the student’s businesses come to life and see how their entrepreneurial spirit really does shine when they leave the classroom and sell to the public in a real shopping mall.

“All of the students were great contenders and it was a real achievement for them to make it to the Trade Fair to learn about selling in a real trading world.

“Overall the judges were impressed with the high standard achieved from all schools and colleges involved and we want to again thank everyone involved for the support Young Enterprise has received from local schools and businesses.”

Judge Angela Craggs said: “The Young Enterprise North East Trade Fair at the Metro Centre was a great day and all of the young people were truly inspirational.”