SOME of the most inspiring enterprising young people in Gwent will battle it out for top honours in the Newport and Monmouthshire Young Enterprise finals next week.

Teams from schools across the region will compete against each other for honours at the City Campus, The University of South Wales Newport on Tuesday March 25.

The schools are Chepstow School, St Joseph’s, Duffryn High, Monmouth Boys’ School, Maes Ebbw School and Rougemont.

Pupils from the six schools and seven teams taking part have been running their own companies covering a range of business activities since last autumn.

A total of a dozen teams from nine schools throughout Newport and Monmouthshire started out on the Young Enterprise journey last September.

The pupils and their businesses will be judged upon short company presentations given on the day, the quality of their trade stands and a final company report which are all presented by the students in front of an audience of prominent business leaders and eminent academics.

The winners of this part of the competition will go forward to compete in the Young Enterprise Wales Final in June.

Newport and Monmouthshire Board chair Kath Lewis, of Newport-based IAC Ltd, said: “We must encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship in our schools and colleges to achieve future business success in Wales. There is no doubt that some of Wales’ business brains of the future will be competing against each other in the Newport and Monmouthshire Young Enterprise final next week.”

Young Enterprise is a UK registered education charity on a mission to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise. Each year, more than 320,000 young people get a head start on their working lives while they are still at school or university. They do this by taking part in a Young Enterprise programme where they gain knowledge and skills for business and enterprise either through a series of workshops and seminars or through setting up and running their own real company.

For details on how to attend the Newport finals event please contact at Kath Lewis on 01633 293008 or klewis@iac-ltd.co.uk.