Plymouth College Young Enterprise company, Affinity, has won the national Young Enterprise competition. Ben Gorvin, Jess Evans, Jonathan Coyte, Jonathan Hall and Nick Butcher were named HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Award winners after a gruelling three-day event in London involving trade stand displays, panel interviews and company presentations.
The final wasn’t without drama when thunderstorms and flooding meant a mid-event change of venue from the Park Lane Hotel to the Hilton Park Lane and the cancellation of the gala dinner.
However, the Plymouth College team triumphed and walked away with £1000 and an eight-day trip to Toronto, where they will be part of the Global Young Person Leadership Convention, attended by Young Enterprise winners from around the world.
Affinity’s winning enterprise is a book “Prambles” containing pram-friendly walks for families with young children. It has been a sell out in Waterstones, attracted interest from a venture capitalist, created offers from publishers and even congratulations from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Jonathan Shields, teacher in charge of Young Enterprise said: “This is an absolutely outstanding achievement by Affinity. More than 80,000 students and 3,000 companies take part in this competition each year and so to win it is just incredible. Our students’ performance at each stage of this competition has been creative, mature and professional and I am very, very proud of them.”
