A BRADFORD secondary school has made it to the national finals of an enterprise challenge after beating over 170 other schools across Yorkshire.

Team Hand Up from Dixons Kings Academy in Lidget Green won the regional finals of the Mosaic Enterprise Challenge, and are now preparing to compete against other regional winner at a London final in May.

Students Nathan Patel, Ruqayyah Rauf, Hannah Hussain, Kajal Parekh, Abdur Rahim Hussain participated in the event which took place at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds earlier this month.

The contest is an annual national competition for secondary school students across the UK, and is designed to develop and encourage their entrepreneurial skills. It sees teams of students working with a mentor from the business community to learn about becoming future business leaders, play a simulation game, and come up with business ideas.

Team Hands Up got through to the regional finals, beating tough competition against 170 other schools in the region, leading to them competing with four other schools on March 8 for entry to the national finals.

Their social enterprise idea involved giving young people the opportunity to exchange pre-loved educational equipment with one another at a fraction of the retail price.

Throughout the course of this programme, students met with their mentor David Worthington from 10 Associates.

Hamzah Khan, Head of Year 9, who leads Mosaic Enterprise at the Academy, said: “Our students were competing against 170 other teams across the region. To have got to the regional final was an amazing achievement in itself and to have then beaten four other schools from Leeds to win the regional final was beyond belief.

"The students really deserve the recognition they are getting. They worked so diligently to plan their social enterprise idea and practise their pitch. The judges were blown away and said that their pitch was as good as some of the pitches in the national finals last year.

"We are all extremely proud of them at Dixons Kings and know that they will do a great job representing our school and the whole Bradford District in London.”

Nathan Patel, a Year 9 student at the school, said: “The Mosaic Enterprise Challenge has been a fantastic experience. We really enjoyed the programme and particularly the support we got from David, our mentor. It has given the confidence and inspiration to develop business ideas and the belief that we can be successful if we work hard. We still can’t believe we have beaten 170 other teams to win. We are all really excited about going to London to present our idea at the national finals.”

Mr Worthington, the MD of branding agency 10 Associates, said: “The Enterprise Challenge has been an awesome experience for the students and for me personally. I really enjoyed helping the students and was amazed how advanced their entrepreneurial skills were and how confident they’d become during the challenge. Let’s go to London and show them how amazing we are up in Yorkshire."

The students will now compete against the West Midlands, North West, Scotland, London and South East for a £2,500 award for the Academy and a £500 award towards the setup of their social enterprise.

Neil Miley, Principal of Dixons Kings Academy said, “We are all so proud of the students and wish them the best of luck in London.”

The grand final takes place in London on May 4.