What’s The Big Deal?
Posted on 7 July 2008
The University of York, in partnership with West Yorkshire Aimhigher and London-based charity The Brightside Trust, is hosting the final of an exciting business enterprise competition at the Leeds Royal Armouries on Wednesday 9 July. The panel of six ‘dragons’ features senior staff from HBOS and Google as well as Khalid Hafeez, Professor of Entrepreneurship from The York Management School, at the University of York.
The students have worked incredibly hard and the dragons will be presented with some outstanding business plans
Nik Miller
The Big Deal is part of a wide range of events delivered by the Excellence Hub in Yorkshire and Humber. The Hub is a Government funded partnership between the Universities of Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and York established to develop exciting opportunities for bright secondary school students.
Students in Year 8 to Year 10 from across Yorkshire entered teams of four to The Big Deal. They had just ten weeks to develop business plans, supported by mentors from some the world’s largest companies such as Google, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Shell.
Mentors and students have worked together online, using a specially designed website. The winning team receives £1000 to realise their business plan, and a trip to the business district in London.
Lewis Knight, of PricewaterhouseCoopers who mentored one of the teams in The Big Deal said: "The competition offers a perfect opportunity for professionals to work with young people on real life business situations. It is designed with busy professionals and teenagers in mind. It has been brilliantly organised and the students have been a pleasure to work with."
Andrew Mawer, based at Education Leeds added: "Working with the Excellence Hub has given students from Leeds and beyond this great opportunity to hone their enterprise skills."
Nik Miller, Programme Manager for the Excellence Hub which is based at the University of York, said: "Developing this programme has been a real team effort. It has been superb to work with some exciting companies and enthusiastic school staff. The students have worked incredibly hard and the dragons will be presented with some outstanding business plans."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Further information on the Excellence Hub is available from Nik Miller, the Hub’s Programme Manager on 07717727068 or nm19@york.ac.uk