Congratulations to Harrow Way Community School in Andover for winning their regional final of the Coca-Cola Enterprises Real Business Challenge and winning a place at the UK wide final at Parliament this week.
The Real Business Challenge has been running since 2005 and is a unique enterprise competition for 13-15 year olds, is free and linked to the curriculum. This year the Challenge reached a record breaking 877 schools across the country. Coca-Cola’s programme gives young people the opportunity to learn softer skills such as teamwork, organisation, time and budget management all of which are vital enterprise skills and necessary in the workplace.
The competition encompasses 9 regional finals in England, and finals in Wales and Scotland before culminating in the overall UK final, held in London.
Today’s Parliamentary Reception enabled the finalists to showcase the exciting ideas and work that got them to the UK final. It also gave the children the chance to explain the challenge to MPs in attendance.
This year’s initiative has focused on litter, with students developing an awareness campaign, including an app and social media plan.
The children from Harrow Way Community School have done fantastically well to reach the final and I’ve been very impressed by their project. The fact that they can develop an app and use social media for enterprise is a great example of how we need to prepare young people for the digital economy of the future. They should all be very proud.