The brightest young business brains from across the north-east battled it out in the final of Young Enterprise (YE) Grampian.
Budding young entrepreneurs from Mackie Academy, in Stonehaven, triumphed in the contest.
Trading as North Sea Coasters, the Mackie Academy pupils impressed a strong line-up of judges with their business acumen.
I hope their experiences of delivering on some very diverse business ideas will have inspired them to become entrepreneurs of the future.”
Ian Phillips, chairman, YE Grampian.
Nine groups of secondary school pupils competed for the prize for overall winning team.
North East Coasters’ winning business idea involved manufacturing high quality wooden cheeseboards and coasters from recycled wood.
Each of the finalists gave a presentation to a panel of business leaders and an audience of more than 100 people in the final stage of the YE Grampian programme, held at the Leonardo Hotel in Aberdeen.
After an intensive nine months of creating, setting up and running a small business, the winning team will now go forward to compete at the YE Scotland final in June.
In addition to the overall winner, the Jordan Kearney Award was presented to Tejash Bhattari from St Machar Academy and Eve Murray from Westhill Academy.
It follows nominations from peers, business advisors and teachers to recognise a student who has shown extraordinary commitment to the success of their YE team, been a role model, and demonstrated confidence and respect for others.
The award is in recognition to the late Jordan Kearney who as a former scheme participant at Peterhead Academy is said to have made a huge impact to his community, his YEG team and the overall competition in 2017.
He died last December, aged 22, after a six-month battle with brain cancer.
Entrepreneurs of the future
YE Grampian chairman Ian Phillips said: “The Young Enterprise Grampian programme has really captured the imagination of young people in our area.
“I hope their experiences of delivering on some very diverse business ideas will have inspired them to become entrepreneurs of the future.
“This year we are also proud that we can also remember the positive impact that Jordan Kearney had in Young Enterprise and to recognise this in what will be an annual award”.
The other secondaries competing were: Albyn School, Hazlehead Academy, Mearns Academy, Robert Gordon’s College, St Machar Academy and Westhill Academy.
YE Scotland, which is a registered charity, runs the annual programme delivering business experience for budding young entrepreneurs in S5 and S6.
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