ENTERPRISING students from Coleg Gwent have been battling with 6,000 other students to reach the Welsh finals of the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Over three days, 118 students from 19 colleges in Wales took part in the Challenge at The Urdd Centre in Cardiff Bay. Each team taking part had won an individual college competition in which 6,000 students throughout Wales took part.

The team from Coleg Gwent missed out on a place in the global finals in Germany in June after a team from Merthyr College scooped the final place. The students aged between 16 and 19 were tasked with setting up a social enterprise to deliver a product of service sustainable with their college. This included creating a business plan and pitching to a judging panel.

Ken Skates AM, deputy minister for skills, said: “We have a wealth of entrepreneurial talent in Wales and the challenge is one way of tapping into that. Many of these young people will use the skills and experience they learn to pursue enterprises in the future.

“Entrepreneurs are vital and these people are business leaders of the future.”

The challenge is part of Big Ideas Wales, funded by the Welsh Government and European Regional Development Fund.