Five students from a Hackney school have beaten off teams from across the UK to win the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s (NFTE) business plan competition.
The NFTE, which is part of the business and education charity the Enterprise Education Trust, has now run the competition for three years.
The NFTE said over 4,000 students a year run a business in their school or local community through its programme in Britain, and many are from some of the most deprived parts of the country.
The winners in this year’s competition were chosen for their business success, and the difficulties they overcame to succeed.
The finalists, all aged 14-15, presented their business plans to a panel of judges at the final in London. The winners, from the Skinners’ Company’s School for Girls, will now travel to New York to take part in the annual NFTE awards dinner on Wall Street.
Steve Alcock, director of the Enterprise Education Trust said: “For many of the finalists this was the first time they had presented to anyone outside of their school, let alone to some of the UK's leading young entrepreneurs, at the head office of one of the largest investment banks in the world.
“They all did incredibly well, but the students from Skinners' Company's School for Girls were outstanding and deserve to represent Britain at the NFTE awards ceremony in New York.”
