Some of the North Yorkshire’s most talented young entrepreneurs went head-to-head as the Young Enterprise, Yorkshire & Humber, Company Programme Competition heats up.

Four teams from schools across the county found out last week which of them had earned a place in the Young Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber Grand Final due to be held at the Merchant Adventurers Hall in York on June 15th.

The teams, which have been taking part in the competition to set up and run a business since September last year, have all presented to a panel of highly experienced judges, undergone rigorous interviews and set up trade stalls to their companies.
The prestigious awards ceremony was held at the Pavilion’s of Harrogate on Tuesday, May 10th.
This year’s teams include Pearl from King James School in Knaresborough, which makes bespoke glass and bead jewellery; tourism business Magentaprize from South Craven School in Keighley; Chains from St Aidan’s C of E School Harrogate, which also makes jewellery, and; Cutting Edge from St Peter’s School in York, which produced a Chair Yoga DVD, “Get Fit Whilst You Sit” for use with the elderly and people suffering with mobility problems.

Paul Marsh, Managing Director, was MC of the Ceremony, Chair of Judges and presented an award which was supported by GSPK Design Ltd .

GSPK Design supported the award for Most Innovative Product/Service. Presenting the award Paul said……..”Innovation is all about change and improvement, and this year all the teams showed this in great abundance. It gave us great pleasure to present the award for Innovation, GSPK Design pride ourselves in constantly looking to improve and innovate and we felt it important to indentify and recognise this within the competition.”

As Chair of the Judging panel and also as MC of the event Paul went on the say……”The competition is really hotting up and the finals are going to be difficult to judge. This year there are some extremely passionate and committed young people, with business skills and acumen that would rival a lot of their seniors. Good luck to them all.”

Jill Tinsley, Development Manager for Young Enterprise North Yorkshire said, “ GSPK Design Ltd have given Young Enterprise tremendous support over the years. Paul Marsh in particular has been a great advocate for Young Enterprise and I’m really pleased that he was able to lead the judges and be able to hand over an award to such an enterprising company as Cutting Edge.”
The overall winners Cutting Edge will now go on to compete in the Yorkshire and Humber final on June 15th at Merchant Adventurers in York, and the winner of that will represent Yorkshire and Humber in the Young Enterprise national finals on 11th – 13th July.