The winners in this year’s Young Enterprise Northamptonshire area competition have been announced – having had to compete online rather than on stage this year due to the Coronavirus crisis.
The annual Showcase Event is the culmination of a year of business for students taking part in the Young Enterprise Company Programme. Usually this involves a face to face interview with judges, a presentation of their company on stage in front of an audience and a display of their products for sale on the night. This year’s event was due to take place at the University of Northampton.
The COVID-19 restrictions in place, however, meant that this opportunity was not possible for the students, aged 15-18, to compete in person against each other. The solution was to do conduct it all online.
The judges, local businesspeople, received each of the company business plans and financial statements and viewed pre-recorded presentations upon which they based their marks. Photos to show their trading stalls where they featured were also submitted towards the final consideration.
13 schools and colleges from across the countytook part this year, from which 5 finalists were selected. Additional awards were given for customer service, marketing, presentation, creativity, sustainability, teamwork and financial.
The finalists came from schools across the county: Northampton School for Girls, Kingsthorpe College, three from Wellingborough School and two from Guilsborough School. A variety of innovative products were created: beeswax candles, books written and presented to empower young people, eco notebooks, handmade soap, and creative festoon lights.
The Young Enterprise (YE) Company Programme provides a real-life learning opportunity that introduces young people to the realities of the workplace. Across an academic year, students set up and run their own student company. They make all the decisions about their business, from creating a product and company name to managing the company finances. Students sell to the public with pop up stalls at Trade Fairs and via an online sales platform, Market Place, set up by YE. In Northamptonshire this year, students traded for a day at two shopping centre’s, Weston Favell in Northampton and Swansgate in Wellingborough.
This year’s Programme was supported by RS Components, long standing supporters of YE, and Wellingborough and East Northants Chamber of Commerce.
“It is a tough process for the students, who have to juggle their academic work with building a business,” comments Robin Neighbour, YE Area Manager for East Midlands. “It is a great learning curve for them, and it is great to see the confidence they gain during the process and an understanding of how businesses work.”
“This year it has been particularly hard for all the students as the pinnacle of the process, the Showcase and the Finals, has been taken away from them due to the COVID-19 situation. I’d like to thank the judges and the students for adapting to the alternative set up for this year and congratulations to them all for completing the year. I hope they have gained some valuable experience in the world of business, and we want to acknowledge that despite the challenges they’ve had in recent weeks, they’ve worked through.”
The five finalists will go on to the country final, due to take place later this month and again conducted online, with video feedback from the judges being delivered to all competitors. The winner from the County Final will then go on to the regional finals in June, whose winner will then compete at the national Finalin the summer. Fingers crossed for our Northamptonshire finalists!
For more information about Young Enterprise click here.
The finalists are the following (companies and schools)
Bee Quintessential – Northampton School for Girls
Ember – Guilsborough School
Empneo – Wellingborough School
Evocate – Wellingborough School
Hanabi – Kingsthorpe College
The following Awards were also given:
Best Presentation – Empneo
Customer Service – Hanabi
Teamwork – Bee Quintessential
Financial – Hanabi
Marketing – Empneo
Sustainability – Evocate
Creative – Hanabi