Press Release

Students from Loughborough Amherst School have been crowned Best Overall Company at the Young Enterprise Leicestershire County Final. The final (held digitally this year instead of in person due to the Covid-19 pandemic), on 29 April celebrated the achievements of students who have set up and run a company over the academic year as part of the Young Enterprise Company Programme, supported nationally by HSBC UK.

6 Teams from Leicestershire competed across three categories – Company Report, Trade Stand and a Presentation with a variety of prizes available to win.
The winning team OLY from Loughborough Amherst School also won Best Presentation Award and Best Financial Management and will now go on to represent Leicestershire at the Young Enterprise Regional Finals Company of the Year.

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. Our Vision is that every young person is given an equal opportunity to learn the vital skills needed to earn and look after their money, to develop an enterprising mindset and to make a valuable contribution to their communities and wider society.

This year, students across the country have set up 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 – despite challenging conditions due to Covid-19.

The winning team OLY created and sold Beeswax Wraps, a student from the winning team, said: ‘Young Enterprise has given us the opportunity to do something none of us had done before. We set up a company, made our own product, sold our product at different events and worked with different people.  We have all taken on tasks that we hadn’t done before and learned new things.’

The companies were judged by Nick Holloway from HSBC, Anne Leivers from the Nottingham Building Society and Andrew Nicholson from De Montfort University. The judges also awarded a variety of other awards such as; Creativity & Innovation Award, Teamwork Award, Marketing award, Sustainability Award and Customer Service Award to other competing County Final YE teams from; Ratcliffe College, Gartree Academy, Sir Jonathan North College, Leicester High School and Leicester Grammar School

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.

Sharon Davies, Chief Executive of Young Enterprise, said: “Reaching the Company Programme County Final represents an inspirational journey with many months of hard work, teamwork, creativity and resilience; congratulations OLY.  The experience and skills students from every team will have developed will stay with them for many years to come and will make a tangible difference to their futures. Students have shown particular resilience this year by continuing with their product development and sales despite school closures”.

Ian Stuart, HSBC UK CEO, said: “As businesses large and small are facing new and unprecedented challenges to meet the needs of their customers and wider stakeholders, it’s more important than ever that we support and nurture young, innovative entrepreneurs across Britain. The resilience and leadership shown by year’s cohort of Company Programme finalists is inspiring, and we look forward to their continuing success in the months and years to come.”

Our judges this year said, ‘All teams should be commended for their agility, tenacity and adaptability with this remote event. They have all done a fantastic job’

The schools competing in the Leicestershire Company of The Year County Finals 2020 were:

• Excitare – Eco-Ranger Bag – Ratcliffe College
• Aliferous – Recycled hair Scruchies hand-made – Leicester High School
• Gartree Dynamics – Vinyl records made into wall clocks – Gartree Academy
• Naturally Empowered– Re-usable cloth sanitary pads – SJNC
• Nebula – Hand-made wooden well-being candle holders – Leicester Grammar