Theo Judges National Enterprise Challenge Finals

On Wednesday 4th July Theo judged the Ryman National Enterprise Challenge Finals at the Telford International Centre for the 5th year. This year saw 50,000 youngsters get involved from across the UK, all aiming to win the coveted first place prize for either Key Stage 3 or Key Stage 4 (11-13 and 13-15 year olds).

The day kicked off with Theo doing a hilarious quick-fire Q&A with Diversity’s Perri Kiely and Jordan Banjo, who hosted the event. The audience found out that Theo prefers Netflix over TV and his spirit animal would be a bear!

Theo then chaired a skills panel which featured questions the children had asked from throughout the year. The panel consisted of James White, 2017’s winner of The Apprentice, Anne Mros, Editor of TES and Ieuan Ellis, Pro Vice Chancellor Staffordshire University.

After this the serious stuff began, the 10 final pitches!  All were delivered with confidence and showed the hard work and practice that had gone into them, making it a very difficult decision for the judges. This year, Theo was joined on the judging panel by Ann Mroz the Editor of TES, Rachel Gowers, Associate Dean at the Business School at Staffordshire University, Victoria Gregory, Sales and Marketing Director at KidZania and Brendan Flood, Chairman of UCFB.  

The two challenges this year were set by Ryman and Kidzania, the Indoor City for kids at Westfield Shopping Centre.

After some deliberating from the judges and a very inspiring speech from motivational speaker, Brad Burton, the winners were ready to be announced!

The team from Northampton Academy won the KS3 challenge with their design for a YouTube advert of a new activity for KidZania’s Indoor City at Westfield Shopping Centre, London. While De Ferrers Academy’s idea for a “Back to School” marketing campaign for a Ryman store won the KS4 challenge. They will have their plan launched at a Ryman  store.

In a last minute twist, Wimbledon High School were highly commended and invited to meet Theo in London for talks on marketing one of their ideas.At the event Theo addressed the keen young entrepreneurs, saying:

“The Ryman National Enterprise Challenge highlights just how important it is to build the confidence of our future generations by helping them learn the right skills for the careers of the future. It’s crucial to put enterprise at the heart of education and with talent like today coming through, the future’s looking positive.”

Congratulations to all the winners!