Partner Article

Young phone friends prepare for business

A group of young enterprisers are launching an innovative phone security business as they prepare for the finals of a regional technology competition.

The group, known as ‘phone friends’, consist of four Jarrow School classmates whom have collectively pooled together their knowledge to enter the ‘Big ideas ICT Youth Challenge.’ The competition aims to find news ways of either developing new technologies or improve existing ones.

As well as impressing the competition judges to make it through to the final, the eleven and twelve year old girls plan to launch their idea as a business. With the help of mentor and mother Carol Metcalfe, (‘UcanB’ enterprise champion at TEDCO) the group are said to be on their way in becoming the youngest ever business to be launched through TEDCO.

The business also includes plans to launch a new phone that allows limited calls to family members or teachers in an emergency when credit has run out. Other plans include putting bus routes and school timetables onto phones as well as adopting the latest wireless technology.

Carol said: “There really is no stopping them. They are full of ideas and when they are together it’s amazing to watch them go. They are determined to go ahead and launch this business and already their plans have attracted a great deal of interest. Their innovative business involves using biometrics and iris technology to make mobile phones 100% secure, which would effectively make the theft of handsets pointless.”

The group has been working in partnership with the business sector spending a day with Newcastle-based UKL Biometrics and is now set to spend an intensive week of business training at Otterburn Camp as part of The Big Ideas final.

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