Pupils show the true spirit of enterprise

New Bridge pupil Tom Meggison (right) and fellow Enspire representatives Luke Hester (left) and Mitchell Kristie at the Young Enterprise Awards ceremony in London.

PUPILS from New Bridge Special School celebrated a double success at the national Young Enterprise (YE) Awards in London.

Tom Meggison (19) was the runner up in the Sir John Moores Award which recognises the outstanding achievements of young people taking part in the YE Team Programme, where teams of pupils with special educational needs set up their own businesses.

He and 15 fellow IT students ran the specialist printing company Enspire which also won the award for the best advert.

Profit

Enspire's products included custom-printed mugs, T-shirts and banners, and event photography and videos.

It made a £2,000 profit in a year and also won other awards - including the best business presentation at Oldham's YE final.

Richard Bright, IT curriculum co-ordinator at New Bridge, said: "Some of our young people can often find social interaction difficult with people they don't know, so it was a huge achievement to interact with pupils from other schools and the successful businessmen and women on the judging panel.

"The students used our video production and printing equipment, which was funded by the Karten Network Trust (which supports organisations working with disabled people), to build Enspire which they ran by themselves.

"They went to numerous trading events in Manchester Piccadilly and the Trafford Centre and even set up a stall in Oldham's indoor market. It has been a fantastic year and I think the company is just going to grow when new students come in."

Paying tribute to Tom, who won the Sir John Moores Award for the North-West to go through to the national final, he added: "We have seen him grow and grow over the last 12 months and he has demonstrated a real enthusiasm.

"His role has been Enspire's finance director but has been involved in so much more than that: design and promotion, presenting our ideas to others and trading at regional events, and he has also motivated others. We are very proud of him."