Neston High School wins £1,000 in enterprise competition

Run by specialist finance provider Together, the event ended with a Dragons’ Den-style finale which saw the trio pitch their idea to the company’s executive team.

Callum Whatling, Jamie McGilloway and Ben Leadbetter also received a £50 Amazon voucher each for their care home business idea, developed in response to the ageing population and the growing demand for care.

Their business studies teacher, Paul Reilly, said: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity. The students did a huge amount of research and they learned a lot about teamwork and presenting - we’re really proud of them.”

All the budding entrepreneurs who participated had prepared a detailed business plan, with schools running the first round and selecting their winning group, who then presented to the judges in the final.

Commercial CEO at Together, Marc Goldberg, who was one of the judges, said: “We were so impressed with all the finalists who took part. The standard was exceptional and the amount of research and level of detail that had gone into the many different business ideas was just incredible.

“I’m very proud also of the group of colleagues here at Together who devised the competition and launched it to schools for the first time this year. We’ve had great feedback and look forward to taking this out even more widely next year to schools across the country.”

The Let’s get Going enterprise scheme was launched in schools and colleges across the region earlier this year, to give young entrepreneurs a taste of what it takes to make a commercial vision a reality.

Students who made the final presented their ideas to commercial CEO Marc Goldberg, personal finance CEO Pete Ball, commercial director Chris Baguley and finance director Helga Wright.

Let’s get Going is part of the company’s wider ‘Let’s make it count’ initiative which spans charity, community and the environment and recently received the ‘Excellence in CSR’ award at the Stockport Business Awards.