Entrepreneurial masterclass for students

More than 100 students, aged 16 to 19 from schools and colleges across the region, took part in the Umph! contest which is part of finance experts Grant Thornton’s Educate to Innovate programme.

During the day-long competition, the contestants received input and advice from a line-up of 10 successful entrepreneurs from the region, including Huddersfield Town chairman and Card Factory founder Dean Hoyle and chief executive of Leeds-based online sports network Pitchero, Mark Fletcher.

The entrepreneurs worked closely with the students, giving the youngsters the benefit of their own knowledge and experience in business in workshop-style sessions.

Helena Taylor, a business studies student from Huddersfield’s Shelley College, was named “most entrepreneurial person” among the students attending the event.

She said: “The competition has been an inspirational experience. It was fantastic to meet all the entrepreneurs in person and I have learned a lot. Most importantly, perhaps, the event has given me the ambition to set up and run my own business, which I hope to do one day.”

A team from Rossett School, Harrogate, won the event. Team member Andrew Hastings said: “The entrepreneurs were totally inspirational.

“I think we all feel the event has given us something to aim for as well as a better understanding of how business really works.”

Head of business development at Grant Thornton Sandra O’Neill said: “The winning team really impressed us with their business nous and enterprising attitude, and it was clear that they had gained a lot of first-hand expertise from their sessions with the entrepreneurs throughout the day.

“Solving real life business problems gives an important extra dimension to the students’ knowledge and academic learning.

“Times are tough for school leavers in this economic climate, with rising youth unemployment and costly university fees taking their toll. We’re passionate about nurturing and inspiring young enterprise and innovation in young people.”

The competition is one part of Grant Thornton’s Educate to Innovate programme, which aims to encourage entrepreneurship and forge links between businesses and education in the region. It has so far worked with 33 schools, colleges and education providers across Yorkshire.

Educate to Innovate was launched by the firm after it produced a report in 2009 highlighting the lack of work in schools to make pupils develop their entrepreneurial skills and be innovative. The firm carries out mentoring in schools which sees staff from across the organisation work with teenagers to help improve their approach to school work.

Grant Thornton is also involved in the Big Idea competition run by Solutions for the Planet. Today the regional final of this competition takes place with ten teams from schools in Yorkshire travelling down to Westminster Abbey.

Grant Thornton’s partner, Graham Nunns, said: “The programme allows us to say to the less gifted students. ‘You might not get lots of GCSEs but with the right idea you could be the next Richard Branson’.”