A TEAM of young entrepreneurs from a Bradford school have impressed judges in a national enterprise challenge that tests their business nous.

Team Hands Up from Dixons Kings Academy came second in the prestigious Enterprise Challenge competition, which is run by run by Mosaic, HRH The Prince of Wales’ mentoring charity, beating four other teams from all around the UK.

The team beat tough competition with their social enterprise idea - giving young people the opportunity to exchange pre-loved educational equipment with one another at a fraction of the retail price.

The national competition was ultimately won by Team S-MART from Eden Girls’ School in Waltham Forest, who are the youngest ever to win the competition.

Eazo Peazo from Rivers Academy in Feltham came third.

The Mosaic Challenge is a national competition that sees mentors from the business community work with young people in schools some of the most deprived areas of the UK to develop exciting, feasible business ideas.

The team from Dixons Kings had reached the national finals by winning the Yorkshire final in March, beating over 170 schools from the area.

The Grand Final was hosted at the offices of Hogan Lovells LLP in London and featured keynote speeches by entrepreneur and former star of the BBC’s Dragon’s Den James Caan and Solomon Ian-Sangala, who at the age of 18 has been voted as one of City AM’s 100 most influential entrepreneurs in the UK. The final was compered by Charlene White from ITN.

A spokesman for Team Hand Up said: “We’ve beaten over 1,000 other pupils to get here and that’s amazing.

"We’ve all worked hard for this and our mentor was so helpful; he taught us how to present a business pitch and to appear professional. We think we’ve all become a lot more confident over the past few months. It’s been a brilliant experience."

Hamzah Khan, Head of Year 9, who leads Mosaic Enterprise at the Academy said: “I am extremely proud of the students. The competition was extremely tough and to come second in a national competition, beating so many other schools is a huge achievement.

"We’re a new school and for our pupils to succeed at this level is something that is very special. We’re proud to represent Yorkshire here in London and to show the rest of the UK what we can do.”

After the final, held last month, all of the teams were treated to a trip on The London Eye, a Duck Tour of the Thames and a visit to Harrods, facilitated by Yousef Ali Al-Khater, Qatar’s ambassador to the UK. The winning team also enjoyed a helicopter ride over London.

Throughout the course of this programme, students from Dixons Kings met with their mentor David Worthington, from 10 Associates, a strategy, brand and design agency based in Mirfield.