Five representatives from this year's Young Enterprise team, Illumina, competed against other school teams in the East London Finals of the Company Programme competition on Monday 22nd April. Students travelled to the BNY Mellon offices in London where they showcased their company. Students had already completed a detailed business report for the competition and needed to set up a trade stand to demonstrate and give information on their product - multisensory candles. The judges interviewed the five representatives at their stand where students explained their inspiration to improve mental health and how they came up with such a fantastic idea. They were then taken off to a separate interview room where judges more formally questioned them on the Company Programme process, their finances, experiences and next steps. After that, the team were greeted by other members of the team and parents who had travelled to London to show their support. Finally, the team needed to give a presentation to everyone at the event. They were the last to present but soon had the audience participating in finding hidden leaflets stuck to the bottom of their chairs to demonstrate the sheer number of people affected by a mental health problem. They did an excellent job of keeping their cool throughout the day. The most prestigious award - Best Company - was given to Illumina! The team were commended on their performance in all aspects of the competition and judges felt that this was a high-quality, professional product that could be a real success in the future.

Well done to the representing students; Max Campbell, Evie Ngyuyen, Luke Winter, Jasreen Ghag and Ethan Abbate for their exceptional performances and hard work in the lead up to this event. They represent a large team who are also responsible for the ideas, acumen, marketing and production in the business. The team has been competently led by Max, who has shown tremendous resilience throughout the process, and we're glad that he was recognised for his diligence in this way. A big thank you to Max's parents, who have been pillars of support for the team, from turning their house into a candle production factory to driving heavy stock all over London for their various events to helping students improve their marketing skills - we are all very grateful.

Illumina is going on to compete in the next stage of the competition in May, and we wish them all the very best of luck. 

Mrs Harris, Head of Economics and Business