Member Article

Salford City College students reach national business final

Business-savvy students from Salford City College beat off competition from seven other local teams to win the North Manchester heat of the National Business and Accounting competition, BASE.

The competition was run by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (England and Wales), Manchester branch.

Salford City College impressed the judges and will go on to represent North Manchester at the national final which takes place in Birmingham in June. Canon Slade School in Bolton finished as runners-up. This was one of 46 heats attracting over 3,000 students in more than 580 competing teams nationwide.

BASE links schools, students and employers to develop employability skills and provide an insight into what a career in accountancy, business and finance might be like. Assuming the role of Chartered Accountants, the students had two hours to analyse a business situation, before presenting their ideas to a panel of top business professionals.

Head Judge, Andrew McLaren of Beever and Struthers, said: “In the presentations we looked for ethical and financial data to support each team’s conclusions. Salford City College demonstrated excellent teamwork and role allocation in delivering a most comprehensive recommendation.

“The team from Canon Slade School came a very close second, and each team can be rightly proud of the manner in which they successfully addressed a very challenging business situation.”

Melanie Christie, ICAEW Regional Director North West, said: “We were really impressed with the team’s performance and shrewd thinking. These budding business advisers looked beyond the numbers and they showed they had an excellent instinct for business and ethics in order to give well-rounded advice. I hope I’ll be seeing more of these young people in leading roles in the future.”

The BASE competition was supported by local firms including Astra Zeneca, PwC, Crowe Clark Whitehill, Hurst, KPMG, Beever & Struthers and Deloitte who provided professional mentors and judges.

For further information about BASE and how to participate please visit icaew.com/base.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James Welton .