News Article

Tuesday 20th April 2010 saw Bank of America host the Chester West and Cheshire Company Programme Area Final with 9 companies competing for a place at the Cheshire and Warrington Strategic Final taking place at Daresbury Labs on Thursday 6th May.

The evening was supported by a number of organisations including Affirm4, Bank of America, Bank of Scotland, West Cheshire & Chester Council, Cracknell Associates, M & S Money, Serco and the University of Chester.

On the evening teams sep up a trade stand to demonstrate to the visiting guests and judges what their experiences had been during their time running their own business. As well as present their experiences of managing their business to the judges and explain how their business had grown, the students also provided a Company Report detailing a number of aspects of their business. The judges asked them a series of questions as part of the competition and they indicated that the students dealt with this part of the competition extremely well.

The Sheriff of Chester attended the evening and spent some time viewing the trade stands before watching the presentations and presenting the winners with their awards.

The awards went to:

Greenbank Special School for Best Trade Stand, with Flourish from The Grange School winning Best Presentation.

Aura from The Queens' School were awarded Best Company Report and Schnell from Bishops Blue Coat were awarded Runner Up.

Upton High School won the Charimans' Award for overcoming adversity.

The award for Best Company went to Prosper from The Grange School.

The guest speaker for the evening was Nick Wood, Managing Director of the Storage Boost Company.

The Sheriff of Chester was very impressed with all the companies and told us her daughter had previously taken part in Company Programme and had been inspired enough to start up her own business, a Designer Shoe Shop in London.

Prosper and the runners up Schnell will now go on to represent Cheshire West and Chester at the Cheshire and Warrington Strategic Final.