Young Entrepeneurs Encouraged

Budding Entrepreneurs Show Their Worth

Friday, 1st April 2011

Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber of Commerce entertained the Mayors of Barnsley and Rotherham, plus recently-elected Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis, when it played host to the South Yorkshire Young Chamber Conference last week.

The Mayor of Barnsley, Councillor Margaret Sheard, and the Mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Rose McNeely, joined 70 students and staff from Barnsley Academy, Greenacre School, Holgate School Sports College, Kingstone School, Maltby Academy, Wales High School and Willowgarth High School at the event.

 

Business people from across South Yorkshire were also in attendance and the conference was sponsored by the Chamber, Rotherham Ready, Nicholson Print, Road to Recovery and the conference hosts Ardsley House Hotel.

 

Rainforest Graphics, Rotherham Ready, Dearne Valley College and University Campus Barnsley all exhibited and a prize draw for a pull-up stand from Rainforest Graphics was won by Kingstone High School.

 

Presentations were given by the Young Chambers from Barnsley Academy, Greenacre School, Holgate School Sports College, Maltby Academy and Willowgarth High School on their enterprise activities and plans for the coming terms. 

 

These presentations were judged by Derek Kozel from Young Chamber UK and Owen Gleadall from Merlin Software.  The Mayor of Barnsley, Councillor Margaret Sheard, presented the prize to Maltby Academy for the best presentation and the second prize went to Willowgarth High School and was presented by the Mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Rose McNeely.

 

Young Chamber’s Rachel Walker-Morecroft said: “Both mayors were very impressed with the excellent behaviour and enterprising abilities of the students and their Young Chambers.  The Mayor of Rotherham particularly said that the event proved that Barnsley and Rotherham had some amazing young people who are the entrepreneurs and workforce of the future, and Dan Jarvis spent time with the students and was impressed by their networking ability.

 

“As far as I am concerned, this was the first of many Young Chamber Conferences for the region. The atmosphere was buzzing throughout the day and I was very proud of all the Young Chamber representatives; their behaviour and enthusiasm was amazing. Young Chamber activities have given a great opportunity to the students to develop the skills they have and to find in themselves talents that they didn’t know they had.  I am looking forward very much to organising the next one!”

 

Each group of students attended three workshops throughout the day.  Jan Davies from Jamie’s Ministry of Food did a cookery demonstration and Sophie Maxwell, of AW Education, provoked a great deal of thought with an interactive session on which social enterprise the students would like to see created. 

 

Finally, Rachel Walker-Morecroft, of Ruby Business Solutions and Young Chamber, provided an introduction to Public Speaking.  The most talented students will be able to test their skills in future, as it was announced that a South Yorkshire-wide inter-Young Chamber Public Speaking competition will take place, in conjunction with JCI Barnsley and JCI Sheffield.

 

The guest speaker was Paul Hoyle of Road to Recovery who gave a lively presentation on his story from school to his success in business and there were many questions from the budding entrepreneurs in attendance.  There was also a short motivational speech from 19-year-old Dominic Beck, who is hoping to be South Yorkshire’s youngest councillor when he stands for election to Rotherham Council in May.