The National Enterprise Challenge Finals at Wembley Stadium #tnecwembley2019

Yesterday we were fortunate to be at the finals of The National Enterprise Challenge. The challenge is now in its 8th year and has provided opportunities for 250,000 children to engage with the commercial world working on a real challenge set by a number of supporting organisations including Ryman, UCFB, Kingswood and KidZania. TG Escapes were sponsors of the Judging Zone and presented the award for The Most Enterprising Girl in Key Stage 4, won by Abigail Painter of Sir William Stanier School.

The team from The Inspirational Learning Group spend whole days in schools around the country with KS 3 and 4 groups. Working in teams the students develop a pitch and the winning one in each year group then goes on to compete in the finals at Wembley Stadium.

Every single student at Wembley yesterday will have a memory forever. Their enthusiasm and energy was infectious. In all competitions there has to be a winner but everyone who took part are winners. Children can’t aspire to something they don’t know. The necessary team work, the role models that are Jordan and Perry from Diversity, the feedback from Theo Paphitis and other inspiring judges, the big stage, the small judging rooms, the tour of Wembley and even the time spent in the minibus with friends made through the competition will all contribute to the set of experiences which give these students more choices in life.

Well done to the whole team at The Inspirational Learning Group. I was lucky enough to visit two schools on their enterprise days working with the team. It was great to see.

When Ben & Mike set up the challenge, they were trying to help fix a skills gap by giving young people some experience of business. You can read their story here. They have provided what could be a life changing experience for many young people. Watching the finalists on the stage you could see what it meant to them. The leaps and yelps of joy we saw when teams completed their pitches were a pleasure to see.

We would encourage any school to get involved in this initiative and sign up to take part on the 2020 competition. Congratulations to all involved. Here is a small gallery of images from the day.