Enterprising Durham schoolgirls are reaching for the stars with their stellar invention which they hope will land them the accolade of being Future Business Magnates.
The eight young engineers from Durham High School for Girls drew on the theme of the dark skies above Kielder in Northumberland for their business idea, highlighting the different constellations to help guide stargazing child visitors.
They hope their LED constellation guide will be the ingenious platform for success in the prestigious Future Business Magnates (FBM) competition, promoting enterprise as a career opportunity to scores of youngsters across County Durham.
Business Durham, the economic development company for County Durham, works closely with partners to encourage an enterprise culture – running FBM to embed enterprise into local schools and show pupils from an early age the host of business and career opportunities creativity and innovation can offer.
Now in its tenth year, the competition has 24 schools vying for the overall winner’s prize as well as a host of other accolades. The successful schools will be unveiled at an awards ceremony in Newton Aycliffe next month.
FBM works with regional business mentors to help pupils with their ideas and through the design process.
The theme of this year’s competition is to design a product based on light – to celebrate the United Nations’ International Year of Light and Durham’s acclaimed Lumiere festival.
The Durham schoolgirls visited the workshops of design manufacturer PDM (North East) Ltd in Bishop Middleham to show managing director Mike Bourner their design, get his feedback and learn more about his successful engineering business.
Tony Lonsdale, head of modern languages and FBM co-ordinator at Durham High School for Girls, said the youngsters developed their astronomy themed battery-powered guide – called ‘Star Struck’ – after hitting on the idea of helping youngsters aged between eight and 12 identify the constellations they see at the Kielder Observatory.
Stargazers push in the LED lights on the black circuit board as they see the stars, which then helps them identify the constellation later.
“The teamwork and the business knowledge the girls get from the Future Business Magnates programme is really important, giving them a broad range of knowledge and activities from the initial idea, to its development and financing,” said Mr Lonsdale.
Georgie McIlroy, 13, one of the team of eight inventors, said: “We came up with the idea because we wanted to make our product as child based and friendly as possible.”
Fellow inventor Imogen Stout, also 13, said: “We thought it was important that children learned about stars and space. We’ve learned that it takes a lot of hard work and resolve to do this.”
Simon Goon, Managing Director at Business Durham, which is part of Durham County Council, said: “Future Business Magnates is fun with a serious message as we look to inspire the next generation of enterprising young people into superb careers and to create their own businesses.”
Mr Bourner said: “The Future Business Magnates programme helps the pupils understand the variety of roles and skills required to start and develop a business.
“The programme is helping me to understand what inspires today’s students to become entrepreneurs, innovators and potential future business employees.”