b-live.com

The b-live Foundation and the ICAEW reveal the names of the country’s brightest young businesspeople...

In June 2009, the b-live Foundation and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) launched Step into Business – a ground-breaking lesson-based competition aimed at building key employability skills and locating the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs in business and finance.

Step into Business was delivered as part of the business studies curriculum and placed participants in the position of would-be investor – much like the successful BBC series Dragons’ Den. Teams were shown three new product ideas and given an imaginary £50,000 to invest in the one they considered most likely to succeed at market.

In asking participating teams to analyse each of the products financial viability and marketability, students were able to exercise key business studies and curriculum skills including numeracy, literacy, teamwork, reflective learning, decision making and leadership.

The response to Step into Business was phenomenally high with 3,520 students taking part in the Step into Business lesson plan. We received a total of 159 entries this year from schools across the UK.

The imagination and commitment displayed by competing teams (in particular with their business case studies and SWOT analysis) was outstanding and, after much intense deliberation, the ICAEW judging panel can now announce that Jaymin Thakrar, Akash Gandhi and Kapish Dave from Queen Elizabeth’s Boys School, Barnet, have been named winners in the Years 10 – 11 Category while the winners for Years 12 – 13 Category were Izzy Shepherd, Becky May and Sam Thomson from The Folkstone School for Girls.

Runners up have been named as:
• Years 10 – 11 Category – Zoe Randall and Shezre Hashmi from Morley High School
• Years 12 – 13 Category – Alistair Charleston, Nathan Johnson and Henry Wakerleu from Bolton School Boys’ Division.

Louise Mason, marketing manager, Student Recruitment, ICAEW, commented, “It’s great to see so many financially minded business entrepreneurs in the competition. We have found some budding business advisers of the future.”

Tanja Kuveljic, managing director, The b-live Foundation, added, “The b-live Foundation is committed to inspiring and developing young people to really understand what they are capable of and to helping build their confidence to make the best careers decision. The Step into Business initiative is an example of how we join up relevant organisations who are committed to supporting young people, education and schools to provide a curriculum-based exercise which helps schools to reach their attainment targets but also develops the employability of young people.”

The b-live Foundation would like to thank all the schools who took part in the competition and hopes that those who were not successful in 2009 will be keen to reapply in 2010 – when Step into Business returns to find a new generation of ‘dragons’.

Teachers requiring information on future skills competitions, please contact Jason Simpson at 01234 21 772.

If you are an Employer or a relevant organisation committed to investing in local communities and developing young people please contact Tanja Kuveljic at 01234 217772.

If you are a student and want to find out more about b-live.com and it's competitions you can register now by clicking here.

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