Year 12 students on the Young Enterprise programme were rewarded for their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit at a presentation evening at Hautlieu School on 11th May.

In front of an audience of some 400 people, 80 students were commended for their involvement with the programme which helps to inspire and educate young people to understand and value the role of business through practical business projects.

The first of the two main awards of the evening was won by Empirical, which was named Best Overall Company, with Horizon winning the award for Best Presentation of the Evening. Both awards were announced by Mike King, chief executive of Economic Development, States of Jersey, and presented by Education, Sport and Culture Minister Deputy James Reed.

A total of eight awards were issued on the night, other winners were:

Achiever Making the Greatest Contribution, as nominated by the Advisers:

• From Empirical – Holly Martin
• From Epsilon – Laura Francis
• From Fusion – Jack Chown
• Horizon – Jacob Little
• Onyx – Hannah Reed
• Revelation – Abbie Goddard

The Jersey Enterprise Managing Director Award, as judged by Cedric Bird of Jersey Enterprise:
• Tom Barclay of Empirical.

The Amicus Teamwork Award (an Award donated by a previous Young Enterprise company), as judged by Young Enterprise Chairman, Beverley Le Cuirot:
• Horizon.

The ICSA Jersey Award for the Best Administered Company, as judged by Maureen Bourniquel and presented by Tania Angell, Chairman of the ICSA Jersey Council:
• Revelation – Company Secretary, Tabitha Gould.

The Channel TV Chairman’s Award, as judged by Young Enterprise Chairman, Beverley Le Cuirot, and this year awarded for the company which made the most progress in personal development, business skills and confidence:
• Onyx.

The ECO-ACTIVE Sustainability Award, as judged by Emma Richardson, the Re-Cycling Officer for the States of Jersey, Olivia Copsey of ECO-ACTIVE and Matthew Gaskell of Standard Chartered:
• Revelation.

Beverley Le Cuirot, Chairman of Young Enterprise in Jersey, commented:

“The presentation evening was a wonderful opportunity for the students from the six companies to get together and share in each other’s success. Choosing the winners was an extremely difficult task as the companies had come up with such diverse and innovative business ideas. However, Empirical shone through demonstrating innovation, the successful exploitation of new ideas in all aspects of running a company, and an understanding that continuous improvement is essential to the success of any business.

“The evening was a great success; we have already received emails of thanks and congratulations this morning and I am most proud of the efforts of all involved.

“We were delighted also that Mike King from Economic Development has offered two companies the opportunity to progress business ideas that did not come to fruition during the programme, with the support of Jersey Enterprise, which illustrates how impressive the students’ business ideas can be and the value of the Young Enterprise programme.”

ENDS

The Empirical team consisted of:

Tom Barclay - Managing Director
Rico Navsaria - Deputy Managing Director
Holly Martin - Human Resources Director
Katherine Day - Operations Director
Miles Thompson - Deputy Operations Director
Sarah-Lynne Gallaher - Marketing Director
Matt Le Marrec - Deputy Marketing Director
Melissa Kendall - Sales Director
Rebecca Pallot - Company Secretary
Charlotte Rogers - Deputy Company Secretary
Robert Smith - Finance Director & IT Director
James Goddard - Deputy Finance Director

ENDS/ALL

For further information, please contact:

Leah Dunford at Crystal PR on telephone: 01534 618613 or by email at: leah@crystalpr.co.uk or:

Beverley Le Cuirot at Immediate Impact on telephone: 07797 727209 or by email at: beverleylecuirot@immediateimpact.je

Note for Editors:

The UK’s largest business and enterprise education charity, Young Enterprise helps to inspire and educate young people to understand and value the role of business, through practical business projects. The Company Programme is aimed at Year 12 students and runs for nine months from September each year. It is supported by a number of local organisations who provide Business Mentors, or ‘Advisers’, along with office premises where the Young Enterprise companies hold their regular weekly meetings.

Since the launch of Young Enterprise in the UK in 1963 over 1 million students have taken part in the Company Programme. In 2008 Young Enterprise launched an alumni evaluation programme to track down its past students and find out what impact the Company Programme experience has had on their lives.
Full details can be viewed at http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/alumni

Highlights from the Young Enterprise alumni report include that:

• Participation in the Young Enterprise Company Programme correlates with better future earnings;
• YE Company Programme alumni are twice as likely to start their own business as their peers;
• Alumni had a greater appreciation of their skills and the opportunities available to them on leaving school;
• YE alumni demonstrated increased social responsibility with more of them committing to voluntary work (55% compared with 39% for the control group).

Young Enterprise celebrates 24 years in Jersey in 2011, having been launched in 1987. Since then more than 2,000 local students have participated in the Young Enterprise Company Programme.