SWANMORE WINS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS' CHALLENGE!

 

Six teams of young people from schools in South Hampshire presented their environmentally sustainable product, idea, or service to a panel of business and innovation judges in the Grand Final of the PUSH Ahead! Young Entrepreneurs' Challenge on Wednesday 14 May.  The winning team, Swanmore College of Technology, was presented with a trophy and prize of £500, sponsored by BDO Stoy Hayward.

 

The members of the team, made up of Year 10 pupils, were: Ewan Brownlie, Chris Colson, Chris Goldring, Michael Renfrew and Daniel Tiller.

 

 

The Challenge, launched in October 2007 by the Chairman of PUSH, Councillor Sean Woodward, required students aged 13-15 in teams of up to five people, to develop a new and innovative product, idea, or service, which reflects environmental sustainability.

 

Local area judging events were held in March in Southampton and Portsmouth, where six teams won a place to the Grand Final.  The teams came from the Westgate School in Winchester, Applemore College in Dibden Purlieu, Swanmore College in Swanmore, and Bay House School in Gosport.

 

The Swanmore team members have worked with their teacher, Mrs Avril Nobbs, and their business mentor, Diana Galpin who is an intellectual property lawyer and also works for Southampton University’s Enterprise and Innovation Unit, to further develop their service.  A major part of this has been to undertake a sustainability audit of their projects using a checklist.  They were required to further develop their business plans and financial models.  They presented to a judging panel of entrepreneurs and experts in the fields of enterprise and sustainability at the Grand Final event on Wednesday 14 May 2008.

 

Their service was a Personal Development Learning Day on the theme of environmental education and sustainability.  Swanmore has a long tradition of organising in-house special event theme days and the team thought it could expand this idea to have them run by a business using teams of actors to deliver sessions.

 

Chairman of PUSH and Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council, Councillor Sean Woodward, said "We organised this challenge to help our young people develop their own entrepreneurial skills at the same time as encouraging an enterprise culture across the region.  As South Hampshire develops, today's school pupils will be the business and community leaders of the future.  Encouraging them to develop these skills can only be good for all us living in South Hampshire."

 

The challenge has been masterminded by the Enterprise, Innovation and Business Support working group of PUSH.  They have worked in partnership with several key groups in the region - Solent Skillquest, Portsmouth & South East Education Business Partnership. BDO Stoy Hayward, Yellowfin, and the South East England Development Agency.