CHAMPIONS. Avonbourne College’s Project Emerge team collecting their National Tenner Challenge Award in London. From left to right: Katie O’Neill, Lydia Hardy, Judie Mayne, Lizzie Tanswell and teacher Suzie Jones.
A Bournemouth academy is in seventh heaven after scooping a prestigious enterprise award.
Dubbed the UK’s most enterprising college, Avonbourne has now won top honours in the national Tenner Challenge seven years in a row.
This year it was the turn of a team of Year 9 students from Avonbourne College who won ‘highest profit’ in the national search for the best young entrepreneurs.
With just a £10 loan each, the four girls that make up team Project Emerge made an astonishing £3,000 profit, which will now be ploughed into their social enterprise which provides micro-finance loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Avonbourne College’s success in the competition prompted Tenner founder and entrepreneur, Oli Barrett MBE, to say: “Avonbourne, it’s got to be one of the most enterprising colleges in the country!”
And this year he tweeted congratulations to the “perennially entrepreneurial” Avonbourne.
CEO of Avonbourne Trust, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, said: “Project Emerge has done amazingly well – to turn £10 into a £3,000 profit is just incredible.
“We entered our students from both Avonbourne and Harewood colleges in the Tenner Challenge as encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit in all our young people is at the heart of what we do.
“Our students are not only using their business acumen to raise as much money as possible but they are doing so in a way where profits benefit the many and not the few.”
Project Emerge is made up of Lydia Sawyer, Kate O’Neil, Lizzie Tanswell and Judie Mayne.
They made their enormous profit by holding cake stalls, craft fairs, raffles, hot chocolate sales and selling voting rights to stakeholders to determine where loans in developing countries would be made.
The girls also used their business skills to attract match funding from an anonymous source.
Their efforts paid off and the girls received the honour of collecting their Tenner award at a special ceremony in London, hosted at the Bank of England.
“We were thrilled to win the most profit prize in the Tenner Challenge,” Judie Mayne said.
“It was a fantastic experience to be in London and learn about all the other Tenner Challenge winners and get an insight into how this competition can apply to the outside world.
“But what means the most to us is being able to use the money we’ve raised to give even more loans to would-be entrepreneurs across the developing world.”
More information about Project Emerge and the people these impressive young students have supported can be found at www.projectemerge.org.uk
Note to editors:
Tenner Challenge:
The Tenner Challenge is for young people aged 11-19 who want to get a taste of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. It gives them an opportunity, through a £10 loan, to think of a new business idea and make it happen, using real money to take calculated risks in the business field, make a profit – and make a difference.
The Tenner Challenge is not only about creating a business but it is also about giving back to society.
For more information please contact Rachel Read, account director at Deep South Media, on 01202 534487.
