Students from the East Midlands will compete in the UK’s largest enterprise challenge for secondary schools and colleges. This year the Make Your Mark Challenge will see over 70,000 students across the country take part in the initiative.
The Make Your Mark Challenge is a one day, national enterprise competition for students aged 14 – 19. Fronted by Countdown presenter, Rachel Riley, the Challenge kick-starts Global Entrepreneurship Week (16th – 22 November 2009) and aims to improve young people’s enterprise capabilities.
Students will go head-to-head with their counterparts from thousands of other secondary schools and colleges across the country when they are challenged to come up with unique and inspiring ideas in response to a secret brief launched online by Rachel Riley at www.makeyourmarkchallenge.org.uk on Monday 16 November.
This year, the Challenge will encourage participating students to come up with innovative business ideas and to consider their environmental impact. Free to enter, it offers teachers a fun and rewarding way to engage their students in an enterprising way.
The competition aims to improve the enterprise capabilities of participating students including risk-taking, creativity, financial planning and communication. It’s part of the Make Your Mark campaign to increase entrepreneurial behaviour among young people. Make Your Mark is run by Enterprise UK which gives people the skills, confidence and ambition to be enterprising.
As well as proving that they’re the among the most enterprising young minds in the country, the students will be competing for the chance to win at a regional level or for the national prize of up to £1,000, as well as £100 in high street vouchers for each member, to help them make their ideas a reality.
Make Your Mark Challenge Manager, Tori James commented; “This year’s Make Your Mark Challenge, which has the strap line ‘don’t be a carbon copy’ ask students to think up ideas that are new and different. At the same time it encourages them to assess the environmental impact of their idea. We hope this will make a positive contribution to a future where low-carbon innovation is essential.”
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For further information or to arrange a photo-call at a participating school please contact Louise at Lava tel 01522 842 800 or email louise@lavapr.co.uk
Notes to Editors
Make Your Mark Challenge
The Make Your Mark Challenge is the UK’s biggest, live one-day enterprise competition and will kick-start Global Entrepreneurship Week (16-22 November 2009) within schools and colleges.
The competition is designed for students aged 14-19 and aims to improve their enterprise capabilities including risk-taking, creativity, financial planning and communication. Over 70,000 students are taking part in the initiative this year. The 2009 competition has a low-carbon theme – encouraging participants to consider the impact of their business ideas.
It’s part of the Make Your Mark campaign to increase entrepreneurial behavior among young people. Make Your Mark is run by Enterprise UK which gives people the skills, confidence and ambition to be enterprising. It has four programmes of work promoting enterprise for now and for the future, globally and locally.
www.makeyourmarkchallenge.org.uk
Global Entrepreneurship Week
Global Entrepreneurship Week (16-22 November 2009) is a worldwide movement of entrepreneurial people, and this year will highlight the crucial role that entrepreneurs and their ideas will play in driving economic recovery in the UK and globally.
More than 80 countries across the globe are signed up to take part, and millions of people will use the week to connect with their global counterparts, unleash their enterprising talents and turn their ideas into reality.
The week is co-founded by Make Your Mark in the UK and the Kauffman Foundation in the US supported by the Department of Business Innovation & Skills. Last year, over 3 million people from 77 countries including Brazil, the USA, Nigeria, China and Afghanistan took part in the first Global Entrepreneurship Week.
