Following their success at the regional finals, the Coleg Powys Vocational Access students from the Newtown site competed at the All Wales Young Enterprise Innovation Awards last week and came away with the Best Young Enterprise Team 2010 Award, as well as the Best Company Report Award in the Team Programme category.

The competition, which was held at City Hall in Cardiff last Thursday, was hosted by Sara Edwards (BBC Wales) and Jonathan Deacon (University of Wales, Newport).

The Vocational Access students have produced a company called Siarad a Sialc, which makes novelty chalkboards from wood and slate.  The group were judged on their trade stand, they were interviewed by three teams of judges and had to do a five minute stage presentation.  The company report was submitted prior to the competition.

Leighton Andrews AM, who is Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning, was the guest speaker and also presented the awards.

Independent Living Skills lecturer Sarah Welch said: “The students have worked really hard on developing Siarad a Sialc and it is great to see that they have been rewarded for all the effort they have put in.”

Coleg Powys hosted a talent show at the Newtown site where eleven acts performed to a panel of judges.  The event was done in a Britain’s Got Talent style and included some excellent singers and dancers.

The winner was Hannah Bowen who is studying Health and Social Care.  She sang ‘My Time’ by Jade Ewan.

Before the talent show a series of workshops were put on, which looked at the creative industries.  Learnthrumusic delivered a workshop to performing arts students. They explained to students how they started their business and how they are using their art to make a living.

The event was arranged by interns, who are students at the College that get paid to do enterprise projects.

Students were invited to attend an Enterprise Conference at the Brecon site of Coleg Powys at the end of May.  A number of guest speakers attended the day to talk to students about enterprise, creativity and business start up.

The speakers were Jayne Brown from JJ’s Health and Fitness, Sian from Nail Divas, IT and Business Consultant Nigel Packer and Alan Wenden from Welsh Brew Tea.

The day was a great success with the speakers providing some real insight into the business world.

Richard Marriott, the Enterprise and Employability Officer at the college, said: “We had four very different, but excellent speakers – the students involved certainly seemed to enjoy the day. I hope that the students will be able to take these experiences and use them in their studies and later on in life.”

Sixteen Coleg Powys students attended the upside down conference earlier this month in Rhyl with Enterprise and Employability Officer Richard Marriott and Student Association Staff Representative Fleur Grigg.  The conference is the largest student enterprise conference in Wales.

This year over 130 students took part in a series of different events and workshops aimed at encouraging creativity and promoting self employment in young people. 

The event was organised by twenty two students from seven Welsh colleges, including Coleg Powys student Adam Hughes who is the Chairman of the Student Association.

Vocational Access students at the Newtown site of Coleg Powys managed to win eight awards and be awarded overall winners in the Team Programme of the Young Enterprise Central Wales Strategic Finals, which were held at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells last Tuesday.

The Vocational Access students have set up a business called Siarad a Sialc which makes novelty chalkboards from wood and slate.  Prior to the competition the students had to submit a company report and then at the competition they had to display a trade stand to show off their products.  They also had to participate in an interview with a panel of judges from local businesses and perform a five minute stage presentation about their company and experiences in participating in Young Enterprise.

The categories they won were Best Company Report, Best Trade Stand, People’s Choice, Best Teamwork, Best Use of IT, Most Commercially Viable Company, Most Commercial Product and Most Innovative Product.  Hannah Evans also received the Best Achiever Award.

They will now represent Central Wales at the All Wales Finals, which will be at City Hall in Cardiff on 24th June.