In July, five Plymouth College students represented South West England in the Young Enterprise National Final. Young Enterprise is a scheme where students set up and run their own companies. Their company - Affinity won the national final, beating 3000 other teams. This gave them the opportunity to go to Canada on an eight day business conference. Jess Evans reports...
If somebody had told me in September 2008 that by the end of the year our Prambles book would have outsold Barrack Obama, Stephen Fry and Gordon Ramsey in the local Waterstones - I wouldn't have believed them. The fact that it did happen meant that our company was named the Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2009 at the National Innovation Awards in July. The title is not one we gained without a lot of work, not only did we have to have a really fantastic product but we also had to complete a company report, give a speech to 600 people and go through testing interviews.
In July we represented the South West at the National Innovation Awards. It was a three-day competition and although we were put up in a luxury hotel and given good food, we didn't lose sight of why we were there - to win. The trip was not without its setbacks, on the second night we had torrential rain in London and the Park Lane Hotel flooded, leaving our seven foot plasma television display stand in three inches of water and our luxury five course dinner uncooked. Eating at KFC in our smart clothes that night just made us more determined to win and get the prize of £1,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Canada for eight days.
As we attempted to eat our lunch on the last day the atmosphere was tense. Our main competition was a team called Blue Moon from Suffolk who had made bird boxes that represented landmarks in Sussex; the bird boxes had UV paint on them so that they would be easily visible to birds. It was always going to be very close, so when 3rd and 2nd place were announced and we were not placed we knew that we were in with a real shot of winning and going to Canada.
To win was truly amazing and a great reward for all of our hard work. On the 7th August five students and two teachers went to Canada for the Junior Achievement Exchange (JAX) in Toronto. We were joined by students from ten other countries who had been picked for their leadership and business skills. The conference was six days long, during which we had lectures and debates on various subjects like Marketing, Innovation and Technology - it was a great way to learn more about business after the Young Enterprise experience and make some great friends. The trip was topped off with a visit to Niagara Falls, one of the wonders of the world, and a ride on the famous 'Maid of the Mist' boat tour.
This experience has taught us all to believe in ourselves and to push ourselves further than we would usually. Even though for half of last year most of us lived and breathed Young Enterprise - it was worth it!
