A group of entrepreneurial Sixth Form students from AKS Lytham were entered into a national competition called ‘Tycoon in Schools’, run by successful entrepreneur and star of Dragons’ Den, Peter Jones CBE. This national enterprise competition for students allows participating teams to write a business plan, lend money, starts a business and trade, and compete with other student companies across the country.
The students were initially given a £1,000 start up loan which they had to pay back to ‘Tycoon in Schools’, from which they made a staggering profit of £4,275, with a 5,552% return on investment. The £4,275 raised has been donated to the charity PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide – a UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people (featured photograph)
A spokesperson for the group said, ‘We thoroughly enjoyed competing in this national competition, had such fun as a group and learnt so much, but most importantly have been able to hand over more than £4,000 to this amazing charity. We feel very proud to have been able to fundraise for them. Thank you to our families and the community for all the support we were given and thank you to our teacher Graeme McIntrye and AKS Lytham for entering us into the competition and giving us the opportunity to do something for others.’
To raise the money the enterprising students made and sold a range of products, including shot glass paddle boards, twinkling bottles, glass candle decorations and wooden reindeers (pictured below). They manufactured their products using recycled goods which they managed to source locally, including bottles from restaurants, bars and the local rugby club; scaffolding planks from local scaffolding firms, and wood cuttings from the gardens of neighbours and friends. Making the products after school and at weekends, the enterprising students carefully packaged them and sold their creative goods at school events, ladies’ luncheons and Christmas Fairs
AKS said the quality of their finished products was very impressive, adding ‘This group quickly learned about teamwork and organisation with production times becoming increasingly efficient. A confident sales pitch and no lack of flair certainly did them no harm. Supporting local charity Papyrus Prevention of Young Suicide, this group achieved an astonishing £4,275 profit – the most an AKS group, if not a Tycoon group, has ever made.’
