Southwark's Young Entrepreneurs were asked to present their business ideas to a panel of judges and the successful groups will be given the chance to produce and sell their products at Borough Market. The objective of the project is to develop young people's business and enterprise skills by supporting them to initiate and develop innovative and sustainable business skills.

The narrative so far:

Students from Bacon's College and The City of London Academy were invited by Southwark Education Business Alliance to come up with a business idea to be executed at London's Borough Market on Thursday 16th December. Forty Year 9 students, working in groups of 5, have taken part in this programme which began with workshops in November covering business innovation and business planning with finance. The EBA recruited volunteers from the Greater London Authority and PricewaterhouseCoopers to deliver these topics and enthuse the students.

At a 'Dragons' Den' style event on the 22nd November, the students pitched their ideas to a panel of professionals. The event was hosted by an EBA partner, the law firm Bristows in their office overlooking the river at Embankment.

On the day of the presentations, Peter Jordan, a partner at Bristows, delivered a workshop for the young people on 'Advertising Law' and Tim Campbell from the Bright Ideas Trust gave a short motivational speech to the students.

The young people presented their business ideas to an eclectic collection of judges:

Anne Roache - Head of Research Services and Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes, Weil Gotshal & Manges
Jean Douglas - Regneration Office, Hyde Housing Association
Jerry Merton - Director of Finance & Administration, Bristows
Lousie Clancy - Programme Office, Climate Change and Water, Greater London Authority
Tim Campbell - founder of The Bright Idea Trust
Paul Gander - Trading Standards Officer, Southwark Council

The panel selected three winning teams, and they will each be selling their products on the 16th December from 11am-3pm at London's Borough Market. We hope to see you there!