Member Article

Mosaic’s Enterprise Challenge 2017 launched

Mosaic, an initiative of The Prince’s Trust, has launched the 2017 edition of its popular Enterprise Challenge competition.This is a national competition that sees mentors from the business community work with young people in schools some of the most deprived areas of the UK to develop exciting, feasible business ideas. The winners from each school then progress to regional finals, with the regional champions being invited to the prestigious Grand Final.

The 2016 competition was won by ‘Team S-Mart’ from Eden Girls School in Waltham Forest, London, who pitched their way to business glory at the offices of Hogan Lovells LLP in London.

The event featured keynote speeches by entrepreneur and former star of the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, James Caan CBE, and Solomon Ian-Sangala, who at the age of 18 has been voted as one of City AM’s 100 most influential entrepreneurs in the UK. The final was compered by Charlene White from ITN.

Over 4,000 pupils from over 100 secondary schools across the country participated in the competition before the final five were shortlisted to compete in the Grand Final. Over 400 volunteer business mentors from organisations including Marks & Spencer, HSBC, Jaguar Land Rover, PwC and Ernst & Young were allocated to the teams.

In the history of the competition, winning teams have enjoyed private trips on the London Eye, tea at Harrods, tea with the Prime Minister’s wife at 10 Downing Street, a trip to ITV News to meet a famous newsreader, a unique tour of Clarence House and a tour of HM Treasury.

The Runners Up receive £2,000 in prize money for their school, while the third placed team are awarded £1,000. All finalists receive goodie bags and all students receive certificates.

The winning team will also be supported by Mosaic to develop and launch their business idea, with prize money of £500 and the winning school receiving an additional £2,000.

Danish Javed, 15, a previous winning participant from New Malden said:

“Taking part in the challenge was great fun and has increased my confidence by leaps and bounds and I am now able to express myself a lot better. The competition has definitely made me more interested in business. I want to be an engineer and plan to work for a company for a while and then one day set up my own business.”

There’s still time to sign up as a mentor for the 2017 Enterprise Challenge. For more details please visit Mosaic’s website - www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk

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