Case Study: Strood Academy
The National Enterprise Challenge Inspires Students and OCR Alike
The National Enterprise Challenge met at The Wayra, London, to usher in the competition and meet with attendees from OCR, Gandy’s Flipflops and Ryman Stationary; as well as this year’s ambassador, retail magnate and former Dragon’s Den dragon, Theo Paphitis. Our guest-list was also graced by the winners of the previous National Enterprise Challenge from Strood Academy, Kent. As winners of the previous event, the students from Strood Academy (Tobias Cole, Cerys Healy, Amy Thorn, Caylen Washer, Georgia Wood and Harry Wyatt) proudly received a bounty of investments; £1,000 from Wayra – £500 from OCR – and a further £1,000 from Theo Paphitis himself.
Strood Academy previously secured themselves as the Key Stage 4 Overall Winners of the 2013 National Enterprise Challenge with their app idea “I-Britain”. The idea was spawned by the group to be aimed at tourists who are visiting Great Britain. It functions as a personal tour guide with details of landmarks, places of interest and events. The app won them first place and high praise from everyone involved.
We were very happy to see plenty of schools participating and benefiting from the events inspiring entrepreneurial advice; other category winners included participants from Kings Church of England School (Wolverhampton), JCB Academy, The Sirius Academy (Hull), Rydens School (Surrey), The Pingle School (Derbyshire), King Edward VI School (Stafford) and Monkseaton School (Tyneside) and others.
Not only has the National Enterprise Challenge inspired students, but OCR, the exam board, who are one of our partners have created their own ‘Being Entrepreneurial’ qualification. Emphasising the fact that enterprise and entrepreneurialism is high on the educational agenda.
“OCR sees problem-solving as a vital quality for success in a wide variety of jobs, extending way beyond the business world. OCR’s new Being Entrepreneurial qualifications, inspired by the work with young entrepreneurs at the National Enterprise Challenge, now provide some much needed formal accreditation in this area and give a wide range of learners a new opportunity to develop and demonstrate their abilities.”
We look forward to seeing so many more schools and entrepreneurs benefit from the knowledge, skills, experience and exposure that the National Enterprise Challenge provides.
The National Enterprise Challenge is an inter-school competition available to all secondary schools in the United Kingdom. The challenge is divided between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 and features tailor-made business challenges to test and intrigue competitors. TNEC has a panel of VIP judges, this year again includes Theo Paphitis as a judge with Ryman Stationary as this year’s main sponsor. Find out more about the National Enterprise Challenge and how to enter at the links below:
