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Ballakermeen High School team ‘Bags’ Junior Achievement Company of The Year Trophy

by isleofman.com 26th March 2012

With the slogan ‘Your answer to handy candy’ and their themed sweet and party bags Ballakermeen High School’s team Rejuven8 have become Junior Achievement Isle of Man’s 2012 Company of the Year.

The students, Katie Banks, Tegan Dixon, Noura Gomaa, Joe Hillard, Sophie Kermode and Chloe Shimmin, will now go on to represent the Island in the JA-YE Europe Company of the Year competition in Bucharest in July.

The event, held at the Palace Hotel, was sponsored by PDMS whose managing director Chris Gledhill presented the Company of the Year trophy, saying 2012 had been ‘a vintage year’ for the competition with students showing outstanding levels of ambition, innovation and creativity that formed part of ‘taking on the adult world’.

Rejuven8 had especially impressed the judges with their clearly set out business accounts and professional presentation delivered without notes. The team’s Chloe Shimmin said the Company of the Year challenge had ‘helped prepare us for the business world’, encouraged them to be self-motivated and offered a learning experience outside of the conventional school curriculum.  She thanked the team’s volunteer business mentors Jenny Qualtrough of Deloitte and Beth Thomas of KPMG and teachers Ian Kay and Ollie Mitchell and explained: ‘The more involved we became the more we realised just how much work goes into forming and running your own company and although we all had assigned roles, what really helped us was the way we ended up sharing our different strengths.’

In preparation for the competition Junior Achievement staff and volunteer mentors had worked with students from King William’s College and Castle Rushen, Queen Elizabeth II and Ballakermeen high schools since September last year to help them formulate and develop their business ideas.

Junior Achievement’s chief executive Sue Cook hosted the evening and explained that 29 teams had taken up the challenge and 15 had become finalists. Before the winners were announced she told the students: ‘Regardless of whether you win an award tonight you have gained something even more valuable; practical experience that you can draw upon during a job or university interview. And how many young people can say they’ve run their own business?’

Sue went on to point out that universities and employers recognise the Junior Achievement/Young Enterprise company programme as the top entrepreneurial programme for young people in the UK, with research showing that on average 15 per cent of students completing it go on to become self employed compared with the national average of six per cent.

In closing she thanked the volunteer business mentors and teachers for their support and said that a DVD of the competition and awards ceremony, created by yourmoviecrew.com, was available for purchase, for a limited period only, from www.jaiom.im.

The evening also featured a performance by the band Panicland - Chris Blackburn from St Ninian’s High School Ffinlo Colley from Ballakermeen High School and Lily Wolter from King William’s High School - runners-up in Junior Achievement’s Next Big Thing talent contest held in January and set to become an annual event.

Junior Achievement Company of the Year 2012 awards:

Company of the Year
Rejuven8 - Ballakermeen High School

HSBC award for corporate social responsibility
Oink - King William’s College

Deloitte award for best company accounts
Rejuven8 – Ballakermeen High School

AXA Isle of Man special recognition award
Genio – Queen Elizabeth II High School

Friends Provident International award for outstanding team member
Klaudia Sciana from inSpirit – Ballakermeen High School

Capital International award for volunteer business mentors of the year
Pam Wells, Age Concern Isle of Man mentor for Genio – Queen Elizabeth II High School and Keith Green, Isle of Man Post Office mentor for Syra – Ballakermeen High School

Boston Group award for best presentation
Rejuven8 – Ballakermeen High School

The Hamblin award for best business idea
Energy Step – Ballakermeen High School

The Maggie Galloway memorial award for inspirational leadership
Matthew Gardener from Elite – Castle Rushen High School

The Richard Holt award for students’ choice
Prototype – Castle Rushen High School

Junior Achievement Isle of Man is a Manx-registered charity. This year it will work with more than 5000 young people in full-time education and needs to raise more than ?300,000 annually. For more details contact Sue Cook, suecook@jaiom.im, telephone 666266 or call in to Junior Achievement Isle of Man, Suite 2, Peterson House, Middle River, Douglas.

- Ends -

Posted by isleofman.com
Monday 26th, March 2012 09:46pm.

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