Local inspiration helps students beat 70,000 young entrepreneurs to
win the UK’s Largest Enterprise Competition
Green-
minded pupils
from Waldegrave
School in Twickenham,
London and Plymouth
College in the South West have
triumphed ahead of 73,000 other
students to win the top prize at the
national final of the 2009 Make Your Mark
Challenge - the UK’s largest enterprise challenge
for 14-19 year olds.
The Waldegrave School students were victorious in the 14-16 category and
Plymouth College in the 16-19 category of the competition after each battling it
out against 11 other teams from around the country at the National Finals held in
December 2009.
Their winning ideas “KeepaKup” and “Pro-Planner” were judged to be the best ideas in their age
category against the 2009 Make Your Mark Challenge brief “Let local inspiration lead you to a ‘cool’
creation” which asked teams to come up with a profitable and original business idea inspired by something
local that minimizes its impact on the environment.
Thousands of students from across the UK took part in the Make Your Mark Challenge, which commenced on the first
day of Global Entrepreneurship Week (16 November 2009). The competition was launched by Countdown presenter Rachel
Riley, who also attended the action-packed final, at King’s Place, London.
Whilst world leaders discussed climate change in Copenhagen, the team from Waldegrave School impressed the judges with their
green idea - KeepaKup recyclable souvenir cups for neighboring Twickenham Rugby Stadium. Designed to minimize the
environmental impact of paper cups, KeepaKup’s USP is that customers who buy it can either keep it or return it to receive a 25%
refund of the price. The returned cups can then be re-customised for other events. The victorious students were awarded £1,000
for their efforts and pupils will now visit a school in France or Belgium for an enterprising and cultural experience.
They will share and develop their enterprise ideas and be given the opportunity to either enrich an existing school partnership or
develop a new one. This success represents a winning streak for Waldegrave school who also won the competition in 2008. Each
member of the team also received £100 each in high street shopping vouchers.
Teams pitched their ideas to a top panel of judges, including Will King, entrepreneur and founder of global toiletry brand King of
Shaves Richard Gillies, Director of Plan A and Sustainable Business at Marks and Spencer, Ben Cohen, Business and technology
correspondent for Channel 4 and Heather Stewart, Economics Editor at the Observer.
Waldegrave School Deputy Head Teacher Jenny Michelle said: “We
are absolutely delighted to have been announced as winners of this
extremely popular competition for the second year in a row and to
have got the chance to go to the National Final. The challenge shows
that anything is feasible; if you have an idea you can make it happen.”
Plymouth College student Jess Evans said: “It feels amazing to be the
2009 winners. 73,000 people entered this competition so we never
expected to get this far so it has been a real surprise. We are so excited
to be going to Belgrade and look forward to taking our idea further.”
8 - WORK
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