June / July have been a busy few weeks with our ongoing support to enterprise and continual encouragement to young adults looking to gain employability skills for future work.

On the 27th June, a team from the city’s St Peter’s School were pipped at the post at the regional finals of the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2012 in Sheffield, which our MD attended as chair of the North Yorkshire board, and it looks like a fantastic day was had by all, have a look at the video.

The students Clockit invention – which converts branded designer shopping bags into novelty timepieces – had already won the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award at the North Yorkshire round of the contest in Harrogate in April.

But, although “Summit” from St Peter’s added regional awards for the best teamwork and the best presentation at the Yorkshire and Humber finals of the competition to their cabinet, they were beaten to the top prize by Fresh from Hymers College in Hull, who now go on to compete at the national finals in London next month.

“The Summit team have every right to be disappointed as they are a credit to themselves and to their school,” said North Yorkshire Young Enterprise chairman and managing director of Knaresborough-based electronic design company GSPK Design , Paul Marsh

“The enthusiasm and invention they demonstrated through the competition epitomises everything Young Enterprise strives to inspire in young people and, although they may not be in the national finals, they should be proud of the awards they won along the way.”

More recently pupils from three special schools have been celebrating awards in an Apprentice-style contest after pitting their business skills against each other in the 2012 North Yorkshire Young Enterprise Team Programme.

It was crunch time when students from Harrogate’s Henshaws College squared up to teams from Knaresborough’s Forest School, Mowbray School in Bedale and York’s Applefields School for a final showdown.

Each set up stands to sell their wares to visitors and guests at the Henshaws Arts and Crafts Centre in Knaresborough – while judges assessed their skills.

The students then had to field questions on how they worked as a team, how they dealt with problems along the way and what they learned from the process before giving a presentation on their story over the last few months.

The 2012 prize for the best product went to the Henshaws College team, who sold printed canvasses for homes and offices – counting a leading Yorkshire estate agency among their clients – as well as diversifying into traditional jarred sweets and pamper packs for Mothers’ Day.

The Forest School trade stand was judged the best, selling bracelets and cleverly- designed greeting cards, while the Mowbray School team was judged to have given the best presentation.

North Yorkshire Young Enterprise chairman and MD of Knaresborough-based GSPK Design, Paul Marsh, added: “It’s important that these young people have had the chance to appreciate the value of enterprise skills, to give them confidence and a better chance of success in later life.

“It’s often the youngsters who start quietly who surprise you the most – not just in terms of new skills but in leadership. But all the students involved should be proud of what they achieved. They’re a real credit to both themselves and to their schools.”

Early July saw the Big Bang event, for Yorkshire and Humber held at the Yorkshire Air Museum.

The Big Bang event is held annually regionally to promote science and technology as possible career options for students. Students from across the region display their project work that has been created in and out of school and is judged by a panel of respected employees across the region.

The day is filled with a host of fun activities and a competition with awards for Product Design, Engineering, Graphics, Electronics, science and technology.

Our MD Paul Marsh was there on the day so support and judge. Paul Commented “it was a great day for innovation and creativity, some great design work and been carried out by the students and the winners of the awards were well deserving.”

“It’s always inspiring to see the enthusiasm from these students and they should be very proud of what they’ve achieved”