Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge students at King Alfred School Academy’s Young Enterprise Group are celebrating after being named the most Creative Company in the South West.
The group of Year 12, sixth form students have been running their own business called ‘Threadly’ and were named the overall winners at the Young Enterprise Company programme finals for Somerset earlier this year.
The group has been making sustainable crochet gifts for the different seasons across the year, starting up a yarn donation programme to reduce acrylic yarn waste and working as a team to start up a student-run business.
After being delighted with their win for Somerset, the group travelled to Bude in Cornwall to compete amongst the other companies in the South West.
They competed against eight other groups and through their hard work, presenting their product and pitching to a team of judges, they were awarded with the ‘Creativity award’ for their creative crochet designs.
Freddy Jones, a member of the team, says: “We are really proud of how far we have gotten, and all the other teams were super supportive.”
“Doing Young enterprise has definitely improved our confidence and teamwork skills, the presentation in particular was a challenging part but will be useful for our futures.”
“Our stand was full of our different crochet gifts and everyone was impressed with how creative our designs are, it was a great atmosphere.”
Isabelle Williams, the Managing Director of Threadly, adds: “The Young Enterprise programme has been beneficial to learning more about what it is like to create a company and all the different roles that come with it.”
“It was a great opportunity to take part in and has taught us relevant skills that will be ideal when applying for university. The group have had a great journey and have been incredibly successful in creating a business alongside their A-level studies.”
They plan to wind up their company towards the end of the school year and we look forward to seeing how they take their new-found skills to future careers.
Compiled by Isabelle Williams.
