A team of enterprising students from Kirklees College have reached the finals of a challenge to help a struggling retailer.
The students, who attend the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy course at the college’s Huddersfield centre, go head to head with a team from Peterborough in the final of the Jessops Cannon Challenge later this month.
Photographic company Jessops went into administration in January, 2013, with debts exceeding £80m. Dragons’ Den businessman Peter Jones bought the business with the intention of turning around its fortunes.
And he gave students in the country’s 26 Peter Jones Enterprise Academies the task of coming up with ideas to move the company forward. The students had to propose viable and innovative new business opportunities to develop products and services to existing customers and attract new customers, backed up with a promotional campaign.
The Kirklees College team – Annalise Wilson and Christopher Kelly, both of Dalton; Shahira Allen and Che Ozoria-Bruno, both of Newsome; and Adam Ali, of Salendine Nook – was selected along with a team from Peterborough.
The two teams will present their ideas to the board of directors of Jessops Cannon on Thursday, January 29, at Reigate, Surrey.
Kirklees College business enterprise manager Lydia Butterworth said: “I am over the moon for our team – they are a group of talented and hard-working learners.
“This is what the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy is all about- working on live industry projects and providing viable business solutions. It’s a unique course for students who want to be entrepreneurs and as well as providing amazing hands-on experience.”
Barry Nash, national business enterprise manager for the Peter Jones Foundation, said: “All of the submissions were to a very high quality and the judging panel really appreciated the hard work and efforts from the students, with some very impressive entries in terms of research, factual information and creativeness.
“Congratulations and good luck to Kirklees and Peterborough for the final.”
Kirklees College’s Peter Jones Academy will hold an open day from 10.30am to 1pm on Saturday (JAN 17) at the centre at Chapel Hill. The last time for entry to the open day will be 12.30pm.
