Students’ business brains put to test in contest

Beckfoot School were the overall winners of the Umph! competition, at the John Smith’s Stadium, in Huddersfield

The winning team was made up of four year 12 A-level business studies students, Nabeel Rathoer, Chrystal Tong, Nikhil Vekaria and Jack Partington.

The event gives students the chance to learn first hand about running a business by working with eight entrepreneurs from across the region.

They are then asked to develop their own virtual businesses on the day. The competition is organised by business adviser Grant Thornton

Winning team member, Nikhil Vekaria, said: “Everything we learned today first hand from the entrepreneurs was really valuable and gave us a different perspective on business from what we study on our A-level course at school.

“The main messages seemed to be that it is really important to do something that you enjoy and are passionate about, and also that it’s OK to fail and to make mistakes sometimes – that’s part of the journey towards achieving success.”

Nabeel Rathore added: “It’s great to know that you can be really successful and run a really good business without it being a name that everyone’s heard of.

“There are loads of good businesses out there doing exciting stuff and for us, having the chance to meet the people who run some of them, is inspirational.”

Sandra O’Neill, who organises the event and is head of business development at Grant Thornton, said: “The students from Beckfoot School were brimming with enthusiasm for business and it’s great to see how much all the young people who took part in the competition gained from this practical experience of real life business and entrepreneurialism.”