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Budding young entrepreneurs from Jersey schools have been putting their business heads together since October under our Company Programme and will be showcasing their businesses and skills at the Young Enterprise Awards evening, which will take place at the Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel on Thursday 7 May.
Five teams made up of students from Victoria College, JCG, Beaulieu, De La Salle and Hautlieu schools will be vying to take home the top prize of ‘Best Overall Company’ after taking on the challenge of setting up and running their own businesses over the course of this academic year with the help of local business mentors who have been supporting them at their weekly board meetings.
The ‘Best Overall Company’ will be eligible to go through to the next stages of the completion at a regional, national and European level.
Dominic Herbert, Chairman of Young Enterprise Jersey said: “Our students have worked incredibly hard all year, with the Company Programme being the most intensive scheme we offer which enables groups of students to come together and run their own business from concept to fundraising, reporting and winding up. It is a very valuable educational programme that seeks to offer a practical business experience as close to real life business as we can possible make it with the help of our volunteer advisers, who are professionals from across the community. This Awards evening is both a challenge in itself and a celebration of the teams’ successes.”
There are four principal awards that will be judged on the night:
- Best Managing Director;
- Best Administered Company;
- Best Presentation; and
- Best Overall Company.
We are very pleased to announced that this year’s Awards will once again be judged by a panel of senior professionals, to include:
• Graeme Smith, Chief Executive of Jersey Business
• Dale Ibbotson, Entrepreneur and Managing Director of 3D Performance
• Tania Angell, immediate past Chair of the Jersey Branch of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA)
• Steve Cartwright, Chair of the Channel Islands Branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Dominic Hebert, Chair of Young Enterprise Jersey
Steve Cartwright added: “Setting up, running and marketing their own companies while in school gives young people valuable real-life experience and enables them to develop key skills that will help them in work and in life. I wish all the students the best of luck.”
There are close to 100 secondary students taking part in the Young Enterprise Jersey Company Programme each year, and this year our local business volunteers come from a number of organisations, including Barclays, Clasado, G4S, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank International and Lloyds Bank International.
Products created and sold by Jersey Young Enterprise companies this year include amongst others, on the retail side, local photography themed premium wrapping paper, the design of a perpetual calendar and filled mason jars to suit any occasion, whilst on the services side we are seeing a Liberation themed jazz event, and the launch of a new youth information service by means of a website and printed magazine for distribution across secondary schools.
Dominic added: “The amount of work that our achievers put in to their company initiatives is not to be underestimated. Importantly, Young Enterprise Jersey could not exist without the vital support from our volunteer advisers and I would like to thank them all for their hard work and ongoing support.”
