Students from Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College were crowned champions of the Future Business Magnates (FBM) competition – run by Business Durham, the economic development company for County Durham working on behalf of the County Council. FBM has helped bring the world of commerce to life for dozens of schools, pupils and businesses over the past few years. This year, judges were looking for a product or service which could change the way we live or work. The winners, Ferryhill, supported by their business partners Jagdesign, came up with a board game based in Durham entitled ‘Fear the Wear’.
St Bede’s School, in Lanchester, came second with ‘Connected Motion’ a dynamo skateboard that enables the rider to charge a mobile device, while Barnard Castle School in Teesdale, came third with their integrated housing solution for third world countries, MicroHood. The theme for this year’s competition was Connecting County Durham, whether it was thinking how County Durham connects to the rest of the world or connecting up ideas with amazing inventions. Over the last eight months, pupils aged 12 and 13 worked with their business mentor to turn their bright ideas into produce a service or product. Sarah Slaven, Durham Business Development Director, said: “Connections are really important in business and as the students have shown, connecting up ideas in different ways or applying them to different scenarios can lead to great inventions.
The end results of our competition have been fantastic and the students have shown yet again, just how bright, talented and inventive they are.” Simon Henig, leader of Durham County Council, said: “It is fantastic to see such innovation and imagination coming from the young people in our county. We are proud that here in Durham, schools from across the county are engaging with our business sector in this way and we are delighted that Business Durham is continuing to foster their enquiring minds as part of the Future Business Magnates competition.
“We hope that some of these young people will feel inspired to go onto careers in some of these industries and that we may well see them go on to even brighter futures here in the county with the companies they have been working with as part of this competition.” The FBM awards event was also a night of triumph for a host of other category winners, including Greenfield College for Most Effective Use of Technology: for “Fusion” – a website to promote and supply locally produced food products. Business partner: Franks Factory Flooring
