Partner Article

Mosaic Enterprise Challenge 2017 North West Winner revealed

A team of young entrepreneurs from Ladybridge High School in Bolton has won the North West Regional Final of the 2017 Enterprise Challenge competition, a flagship education initiative driven by Mosaic, HRH The Prince of Wales’ mentoring charity and part of The Prince’s Trust.

‘Team Healthwise’ from Ladybridge High School beat stiff competition from teams from Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Calderstones High School, Parrs Wood High School and Royton & Crompton High School. Their winning idea was focused around promoting healthier lifestyles in schools, whilst simultaneously encouraging fellow students to spend less time on their phones. All finalists had beaten hundreds of students from other schools across the region to reach the final.

The competing teams pitched their ideas in a Dragons’ Den style event to a prestigious panel of judges, including: Sir Peter Fahy, CEO of Retrak and the Former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police; Saeed Atcha, Founder & CEO of Xplode Magazine; Sarah Khan-Bashir MBE, Partner at Shire Solicitors Chairman of Mosaic Yorkshire; Jonathan Holt, Senior Office Partner at KPMG; and Sharon Pegg, Group Inclusion and Diversity Manager at Co-Op.

Team Healthwise will now progress to the Enterprise Challenge Grand Final in London on 17th May where they will compete against winning schools from London, the West Midlands, South East, Yorkshire and Scotland for the chance to become national champions.

The overall winning team will win a prize of £2,500 for their school plus a further £500 to invest in developing their business idea and making it a commercial reality. Previous winners have also enjoyed tea at 10 Downing Street and a unique tour of Clarence House.

The pupils from Team Healthwise said: “We are so happy to have won the North West Regional Final of the Enterprise Challenge! Our school has been participating in the Enterprise Challenge for a number of years now, and we know how hard it is to get through to the Regional Final, let alone win! We are particularly grateful for the support of the fantastic Mosaic mentors along the way”

Sir Peter Fahy, chairman of the judging panel, said: “It was a pleasure to Chair the North West Enterprise Challenge Regional Final. I was delighted to see the excellent work Mosaic are doing to promote entrepreneurship in our local area. The quality of the pitches was extraordinarily high and I am delighted that Team Healthwise from Ladybridge High School will be representing us in the Grand Final. We wish them the very best of luck!”

Nafisa Hakim, North West Regional Manager for Mosaic, said: “Team Healthwise delivered a superb pitch to the judges and they clearly put everything they’d learned from their mentor to good use. The standard of all the teams was extremely high this year and I’m very proud of all the pupils that took part. A special thank you must go to our team of volunteer mentors who give up their time to coach, support and inspire the pupils taking part.”

Run annually, Mosaic’s Enterprise Challenge is a national competition that aims to inspire knowledge, raise aspirations, confidence, self-efficacy and long-term employability among secondary school pupils from some of the most deprived communities across the UK. Supported by specialist, volunteer mentors from across the business community, students compete for six-weeks in an online business game where they must develop, market and sell a new product.

For more information on Mosaic, visit www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk, email mosaic@princes-trust.org.uk or call +44 (0)203 222 5913.

For further media information, please contact:

Speed Communications

Liam O’Shea / Jim Gillingham

mosaic@speedcomms.com

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