St Sampson’s and Victoria College victorious in Channel Islands Student Business Challenge

The Gardening Gang from Victoria College in Jersey and Sea Lead from St Sampson’s High School in Guernsey have won the Overall Awards in this year’s Channel Islands Student Business Challenge in recognition of their highly successful businesses. The Gardening Gang sold “sow and grow” kits and herb gardens, whilst Sea Lead sold dog leads made from old fire hoses and the offcuts of airplane seatbelt webbing. The awards were announced at a virtual awards ceremony live streamed on Thursday 21 May.

Further awards were presented in both islands with CaRaVan Creations from Beaulieu winning the Overall Community Award in Jersey for their business making accessories and jewellery from upcycled T-shirts, and Attic Addicts from Grammar winning the Community Award in Guernsey for their home accessories and gifts made from upcycled products. For the first time this year Product Awards were given to teams with unique and imaginative products. The Guernsey Product Award went to La Mare de Carteret’s Teeny Tiny Toys for their decorated peg dolls. The Jersey Product Award was won by Handy Suppliers for their clip-on bags to keep hand sanitiser and dog waste bags easily accessible.

Additionally, a prize was given to a winning team at each school who, in the judges’ opinion, demonstrated effective teamwork, excelled at marketing and showed a good understanding of how to make their business profitable.

The Channel Islands Student Business Challenge involved teams of students from schools in Guernsey and Jersey working with mentors from the sponsors – Barclays, EY, and CPA Global – to create and run a business from January to March. A total of eighty teams took part in this year’s Challenge from six schools in Jersey plus three schools in Guernsey.

Each team was given a loan of £100 to start their business. The eighty teams collectively generated revenues of over £30,000 and will donate in the region of £5,000 of their profits to charities including local charities such as the GSPCA, JSPCA, Durrell, Les Bourgs and Jersey Hospice.

Kirsty Mackay, Associate Partner at EY said “Despite the changes brought about by CoVid-19 we felt it was important to recognise the exceptional hard work of the teams that took part in the Challenge this year. We had to cut the Challenge short by a few weeks and have adapted our approach with our judging performed remotely and our awards being announced at a live streamed event.”

Kirsty Mackay continued “The teams made impressive profits in a very short space of time. It is inspiring to see the generosity of their charitable donations and to see them actively engaging with their chosen charities whilst still learning key employability skills. These awards are testament to the teams’ hard work in creating viable businesses and we are extremely proud of their achievements.”

Alun Watkins, Headteacher at Victoria College in Jersey added, “This Challenge has helped the students improve their numeracy and financial understanding as well as their communication and organisation skills, and given them valuable experience of working in teams. The skills that they have developed will prove valuable throughout the rest of their schooling and when they enter the working world.”

Liz Coffey, Executive Headteacher in Guernsey said “We are so proud of our students who have successfully created innovative businesses. They have learned a huge amount in the process and we have seen them grow in confidence throughout the Challenge.”

Participating schools from Jersey are Beaulieu, Grainville, Haute Vallee, Jersey College for Girls, Les Quennevais and Victoria College and from Guernsey are Grammar, La Mare de Carteret and St Sampson’s High School.

2020 Winners

JERSEY – The winning teams are:

Overall Winner The Gardening Gang from Victoria College

Overall Community CaRaVan Creations from Beaulieu

Product Award Handy Suppliers from Grainville

School Awards

Beaulieu: Paws Accessories

Grainville: Team 3D

Haute Vallee: A Piece of Jersey

JCG: Diffusion

Les Quennevais: Light It Up

Victoria College: The Gardening Gang