Just The Job As Students Reach National Careers Final

Budding student entrepreneurs proved they had a head for business after reaching the finals of a prestigious national competition.

The group of Year 9 students beat off competition from almost 60,000 other youngsters from around the country to secure a place in the National Careers Challenge finals.

After impressing judges in the school-based rounds, Ethan Shaw, Phoebe Westwood, Le’Shea Campbell, Rav Bhandal and Alex Freeman were invited to the national final at the ICC in Birmingham to compete for the ultimate prize.

They were up against 1,000 other pupils to present their business solution to a social problem.

Moseley Park’s idea was “Community Care Service” and focused on providing health-related care to the local community and developing a training programme to create opportunities for local people

Students had just three-and-a-half minutes to pitch their idea to a group of judges.

The presentation event took place in Symphony Hall, and was hosted by comedian Jason Manford, who interviewed Nick Jenkins – a former star of Dragons’ Den and the founder of card company Moonpig. The audience was also treated to a performance by Flintz and Taylor from Britain’s Got Talent.

Aside from the main activities at the event, there was plenty to keep contestants occupied, including craft stalls, gaming competitions, a chance to check their reaction times and virtual reality experiences.

The group also met former Moseley Park student Bhupinder Jawanda, who was on the Army Careers stand. He talked to them about military careers and showed some of the weapons and resources used by the Infantry.

Mrs Parish, who took the students to the event, said: “I was very proud of our pupils. They represented the school brilliantly and did very well indeed to get to the national final.”