On Friday 18th October, we were delighted to welcome students from colleges and sixth forms to the NatWest Headquarters in London. From Northern Ireland to Bristol and Cardiff to Birmingham, over 100 students travelled to compete in the National Skills Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive.
The National Skills Challenge in partnership with NatWest Thrive targeted Year 12 & 13 students and was delivered to 1300 students across the country. NatWest Thrive funded 12 deliveries at colleges aligned with their chosen accelerator hubs and students were tasked with developing a service-based idea which solved a problem that they, their friends or their family
face on a regular basis.
The winning teams from each delivery were invited to attend the National Finals event which took place at NatWest HQ in their impressive Conference Centre. The morning was filled with the preliminary rounds of judging, which saw our students present their pitches to entrepreneurs and managers of NatWest’s London accelerator hubs. In addition to this, students took part in a Q&A panel with NatWest’s graduate scheme, enabling them to gain valuable insight into NatWest Early Careers.
Our morning judges had a difficult job whittling the students down to just 4 teams. Congratulations to the teams from St John’s College in Cardiff and Rainham Mark Grammar School who were shortlisted to present their ideas in the afternoon’s National Final event.
The afternoon judging panel was headed up by Michelle Prance – Chief Executive of Mettle and she was joined by Nicky Mackrell – Director of Brand Marketing at NatWest Group and Marty Carroll – Director, Digital Marketing & Media at NatWest Group. Throughout the afternoon’s presentations, our judges were looking for detailed and exciting marketing strategies and robust financial plans with opportunities to scale their businesses in the future.
Ben Dyer, co-founder of The Inspirational Learning Group said, “We have been blown away by the high standard of business plans and pitches during this year’s challenge delivery and finals. Students have demonstrated that they are able to develop comprehensive business propositions that have clearly defined USP’s and creative marketing strategies – crucial skills for
the future world of work. We would like to thank NatWest Thrive for partnering with The Inspirational Learning Group on another valuable project and we can all agree that the future of UK entrepreneurship is in very safe hands!”.
A huge congratulations to the following schools who will join our TNSC Hall of Fame:
Winners – Team Bearable from St John’s College Cardiff
Runners-Up – Team Bingo from Rainham Mark Grammar School
