Students from Pontefract Academies Trust secondary schools, The King’s School, and Carleton High School competed in The Prince of Wales Hospice ‘Dragon’s Den meets The Apprentice’ challenge.
Taking inspiration from the BBC’s popular TV shows, The Prince of Wales Hospice created their own exciting challenge for local schools to showcase the next generation of billionaires in the making. Students teamed up, developed a business idea, and pitched their products to a panel of Dragons set up by managers of high-profile local organisations. The students were given three months and £50 each to create their product and make as much profit as they could.
On Wednesday, 9 February 2022, the teams presented their final results to a panel of judges at King’s Croft Hotel. In total, the teams made a staggering profit of £1,550. The money will help to fund quality patient care at the Hospice.
The overall winner, and recipient of the award for ‘Most Money Raised’, was the team ‘Prince of Sweets’ from Carleton High School who produced beautifully presented, seasonal Christmas boxes and made the biggest profit amongst the young entrepreneurs.
The judges said their pitch was ‘delivered with confidence’, and awarded them £100 in Nike vouchers, donated by Nike at Junction 32.
More awards were given out on the day, which included the winner of the ‘Best Original Pitch’ which was won by team ‘Crown Candy’ from The King’s School. The trophy for the ‘Best Innovation’ award was won by team ‘Treats in a Jar’ from Carleton High School.
Centre Director at Junction 32, Darren Winter, thanked the teams for their efforts and said: “The programme has been absolutely wonderful, the teams have worked so hard to deliver their ideas. I look forward to getting more people involved in the future.”
We would like to thank the kind sponsors of the event at Allied Glass, Total Energies, and Junction 32, for making this challenge possible.