Team Fusion from Grainville in Jersey and Bouan Appetit from Guernsey Grammar have won the Overall Awards in this year’s Channel Islands Student Business Challenge in recognition of their highly successful businesses. Team Fusion sold key rings and magnets whilst Bouan Appetit sold a Guernsey themed cookery book. The Channel Islands Student Business Challenge Awards ceremony was held in Guernsey on Wednesday 22 May at the St Pierre Park and in Jersey on Thursday 23 May at the Royal Yacht.
Further awards were presented in both islands with New Light from Grainville winning the Overall Community Award in Jersey for their business collecting recycled jars and candle wax from the local community, and Family Friends from St Sampson’s winning the Community Award in Guernsey for their involvement with Les Bourgs hospice through their sales of coasters, magnets and key rings.
Additional awards were also given to teams at each school who excelled at marketing as well as to the teams that demonstrated the best 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 corporate partners at Barclays, EY, Ogier and Sure to create and run a business over a ten-week period. 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 nearly £33,000 and have donated more than £7,500 of their profits to charities including local charities such as the GSPCA, JSPCA, Durrell, Les Bourgs and Jersey Hospice.
Paul Savery, Managing Director for Barclays, Channel Islands said “All the teams have generated an impressive return on investment in a very short space of time and they should be very proud of themselves. The judges were enormously impressed with the hard work and entrepreneurial spirits of the winners.”
John McGuinness, Executive Headteacher at Grainville and Haute Vallee schools in Jersey added, “The students who participated in this year’s Challenge have been on a steep learning curve. They have developed their teamwork, financial understanding and started to develop key business skills which will stand them in excellent stead in the future. They’ve also had a lot of fun.”
Liz Coffey, Executive Headteacher in Guernsey said “The Challenge has gone from strength to strength and we are so proud of our students who have created innovative businesses in a very short space of time. They have learned a huge amount and we have seen how much the Challenge has helped them improve their communication skills, organisation and their teamwork.”
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.
