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Awards ceremony for young entrepreneurs

25/06/2002

Enterprising students were awarded for their efforts today at an awards ceremony in Edinburgh.

The Awards ceremony was organised with Careers Scotland as part of the Schools Enterprise Programme national showcase event. Sixteen schools will be competing for awards on the day, and Minister for Enterprise, Transport & Lifelong Learning, Iain Gray will announce the winners at 3.30pm. The Minister will also present awards to the two winning schools from the Skene Young Enterprise scheme.

Mr Gray said:

"This joint award ceremony celebrates the success of two programmes that are vital to the future of our young people. This is an important day for schools all over Scotland and I'm delighted to be able to announce the winners at today's award ceremony."

"Today's school pupils are tomorrow's business entrepreneurs. I hope enterprise projects like the ones I have seen today will help equip Scotland's young people with the skills they need to succeed".

The second part of the awards is the Skene Awards, which encourage pupils within primary and secondary schools to operate Mini and Young Enterprise companies.

Portree Primary School in Skye was the winning primary school. It set up a company to make house numbers to help people in their community and the emergency services find houses more quickly.

The winning secondary school was Castle Douglas High School, Dumfries & Galloway who set up a company called 'Gifts o' Galloway where they developed and sold hampers of local delicacies. The hampers were produced to help promote the local area after last year's outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease.

The Skene Young Entrepreneur Awards are organised by the Skene Enterprise Trust under the Chairmanship of Professor Charles Skene. The Awards were introduced in 1986 following Charles Skene's involvement as Chairperson of Industry Year in Grampian.

The Awards ceremony is sponsored by the Skene Group, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, John Menzies plc, Royal Mail Stamps & Collectibles, Scottish Gas, the MacRobert Trust and the Royal Society of

Edinburgh.

For the Skene Awards the two national winners each receive the Scottish Gas Trophy, a cheque for £1,000, an award certificate for their school and an individual certificate for each pupil who was directly involved in the project. In addition, the pupils from the winning national primary school receive first day issue stamps and a stamp collection from Royal Mail Stamps & Collectibles.

For the Schools Enterprise Programme national awards the winner of the most enterprising primary school in Scotland will be presented with a cup, £300 cheque and a certificate. The 2nd and 3rd most enterprising primary school in Scotland will each receive £150 and a certificate.

In Scotland, the Schools Enterprise Programme is a joint-venture partnership between the Scottish Executive (£2.5 million funding) and the business community through Schools Enterprise Scotland Ltd (£2.5 million funding). The 3 year programme will offer every primary school pupil (currently 2,300 primary schools with 425,000 pupils) at least 2 enterprise experiences by the end of their primary education.

Page updated: Thursday, July 22, 2004