From education to employment

Pipers Corner School students win National Enterprise competition

Young entrepreneurs from Pipers Corner School, Buckinghamshire, who had already been selected as Young Enterprise Company of the Year at the Young Enterprise South Central final, have won the national Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award at the Young Enterprise national final, supported by HSBC UK.

The team will now go on to represent the UK in Lille, France at the European final. The runners up were Ragdogs from Bloomfield Collegiate School in Northern Ireland.

The winning team, Bathe, have created and sold bath infusion tea bags inspired by influential women. The judges were highly impressed with the team’s product made using sustainable materials only – each tea bag contains Epsom salts, natural dyes, oats, scented oils and dried plant leaves.

The final, held at County Hall, London, on 18th June, celebrated the top 14 student companies set up and run over one academic year as part of the Young Enterprise Company Programme.

Young Enterprise is a national charity which works to equip young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to succeed in the changing world of work.  

This year students across the country have set up almost 1,000 companies over the academic year, making all the decisions about their business, from deciding the company name and product, to creating a business plan, managing their finances and selling their products.

The overall winning team is judged against a strict set of criteria including innovation, sales, marketing, financial performance, social impact and teamwork.

Bathe from Buckinghamshire wowed judges with their company report, trade stand, interview, and presentation. All 11 of the girls involved have been offered a full scholarship at the University of Buckinghamshire as a result, to study on the BSc Business Enterprise Venture Creation Programme.

Harriette Evans, from team Bathe said:

“Young Enterprise has been such an incredible experience, I wouldn’t change anything about it for the world! As a team we’ve grown so close together and YE has been an incredible platform to do that. For the future we expect to go bigger and better and we can’t wait to see what comes.”

Young Enterprise research shows Company Programme participants develop key employability skills and a longitudinal study of Company Programme alumni has shown that in the two years following the programme, 94% are in education, employment or training [EET] – 5% higher than the national rate.

Michael Mercieca, Chief Executive of Young Enterprise, said: “Winning the Company Programme Final represents an inspirational journey with many months of hard work, teamwork, creativity and resilience; congratulations Bathe.

The experience and skills students from every team will have developed will stay with them for many years to come and we are greatly encouraged by our research which shows that 94% of Company Programme alumni go on to education, employment or training – 5% higher than the national average.”

Ian Stuart, HSBC UK CEO, said: “HSBC has supported the Company Programme for the last 32 years with colleagues across the UK volunteering their time and expertise to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs. It’s fantastic to see students deal with real life business decisions and develop employability skills such as creativity, resilience and communication.

The Company Programme is a great way for young people to prepare themselves for the future world of business.”

 

Young Enterprise is a national charity that motivates young people to succeed in the changing world of work by equipping them with the work skills, knowledge and confidence they need.

Every year we work with 315,000 young people, and train 3,200 teachers in both enterprise and financial education, with the help of more than 6,000 volunteers and 3,500 businesses.

94% of Young Enterprise Company Programme alumni are in an Education, Employment or Training destination – 5% higher than the national average.


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