Young Enterprise in the North East is celebrating national success, as RGS Newcastle wins the much-vaunted creativity award, with Project Parrot.
A 14-strong team of year 12 business students, wowed the judges with their vision for a high-quality series of language learning books for five-eight-year-olds, written in a fun and creative way.
Having won the North East regional heat, the team struck gold at the national finals, held online with judges impressed with the business plan and innovative concepts.
Young Enterprise is a leading employability and financial education charity empowering young people across the UK. It offers a range of enterprise programmes and workshops which support careers education, provide meaningful employer encounters and help young people develop the skills they need for the future.
The Company Programme provides an experiential learning opportunity that introduces young people to the practical realities of the world of work.
The RGS Newcastle team members behind Project Parrot each took on a role within the business and based their enterprise on a children’s book based on learning languages. The team had to put together a company report, give a presentation and be interviewed by a panel of judges.
Paula Donnelly, business advisor for RGS Newcastle, said: “I could not be prouder of this team and what they have accomplished throughout the programme. The teamwork, delegation and self-sufficiency they have exhibited demonstrates maturity beyond their years. I truly believe the programme has made them more aware of their strengths, how to maximise them and made them more ready to go into the world of work. I’d be happy to have any one of them as an employee but I think many of them will be building their own businesses in years to come.”
Christine Pipes, design and technology teacher at RGS Newcastle, said: “Every year I get to work with a new group of students and I am in awe at how much talent and enthusiasm these young people have. This year, Project Parrot, have excelled! Their hard work and determination resulted in an eye-catching, educational and imaginative languages book for children, which they are quite rightly, very proud of. It is an absolute pleasure to work with these students and I am so proud of their achievements, especially as they have faced and overcame many unforeseen challenges.”
Carolyn Adgar, Young Enterprise North East, said: “I’m extremely pleased that RGS Newcastle gained a place in the UK final and won the creativity award. It was well deserved as their business concept is very innovative. The book is a creative and fun way of teaching different languages and their plans for expanding the business into the future are very well thought out. It’s been a pleasure to watch their journey over the past academic year and I wish them every success in the future.”