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Green minded pupils from Waldegrave School in Twickenham, London and Plymouth College in the South West have triumphed ahead of 73,000 other students to win the top prize at the national final of the 2009 Make Your Mark Challenge – the UK’s largest enterprise challenge for 14-19 year olds.

The Waldegrave School students were victorious in the 14-16 category and Plymouth College in the 16-19 category of the competition after each battling it out against 11 other teams from around the country at the National Finals yesterday (Thursday December 10 2009).

Their ideas “KeepaKup” and “Pro-Planner” were judged to be the best in their age category against the 2009 Make Your Mark Challenge brief “Let local inspiration lead you to a ‘cool’ creation” which asked teams to come up with a profitable and original business idea inspired by something local that minimizes its impact on the environment.

Thousands of students from across the UK took part in the Make Your Mark Challenge, which commenced on the first day of Global Entrepreneurship Week (16 November 2009). The competition was launched by Countdown presenter Rachel Riley, who also attended the action-packed final, at King’s Place, London.

Whilst world leaders discussed climate change in Copenhagen, the team from Waldegrave School impressed the judges with their green idea KeepaKup – recyclable souvenir cups for neighboring Twickenham Rugby Stadium. Designed to minimize the environmental impact of paper cups, KeepaKup’s USP is that customers who buy it can either keep it or return it to receive a 25 percent refund of the price. The returned cups can then be re-customised for other events. The victorious students were awarded £1,000 for their efforts and pupils will now visit a school in France or Belgium for an enterprising and cultural experience. They will share and develop their enterprise ideas and be given the opportunity to either enrich an existing school partnership or develop a new one. Each member of the team also received £100 each in high street shopping vouchers. This success represents a winning streak for Waldegrave School who also won the competition in 2008.

Plymouth College students came up with the idea of a ‘Pro-Planner’, an online student planner which would eradicate paper planners for every pupil in the school, ensuring that pupils could not lose their planners or not know what homework is being set. Teachers would upload homework and all pupil planners would be updated with the relevant work set. Their idea also incorporated a parent log-in facility, enabling parents to keep track of their children’s homework. Their creative and efficient idea earned the winning students a trip to Belgrade, Serbia for the Skills@Work Challenge Final, a joint-project between the British Council and Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise (JA-YE) Europe, supported by Microsoft CEE. The UK team will work with students from European nations such as Bulgaria, Romania and Georgia, before going on to participate in a virtual final with counterparts from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Each member of the team also received £100 each in high street shopping vouchers.

Teams pitched their ideas to a top panel of judges, including Will King, entrepreneur and founder of global toiletry brand King of Shaves, Richard Gillies, Director of Plan A and Sustainable Business at Marks and Spencer, Ben Cohen, Business and Technology Correspondent for Channel 4 and Heather Stewart, Economics Editor at the Observer.

Scott Cain, Deputy Chief Executive at Enterprise UK and one of the competition judges, said of the winning team: “The Make Your Mark Challenge is a fantastic opportunity for students to get some hands on experience of enterprise. This year’s low carbon theme has significant relevance to all our lives and futures, and the responses to the brief demonstrate both the enterprising talents of young people in the UK and an increasing awareness of positive and sustainable change. There has been a very high standard of ideas this year, giving us great hope for entrepreneurs of the future. The national final proved to be a really tight contest but we were especially impressed with the creativity and consideration shown by Waldegrave School and Plymouth College.”

Waldegrave School Deputy Head Teacher Jenny Michell said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been announced as winners of this extremely popular competition for the second year in a row and to have got the chance to go to the National Final. The challenge shows that anything is feasible; if you have an idea you can make it happen. Our students have worked so hard to develop their creative idea and we are glad that we could do our school, and the area, proud. To win for two years running, we must be doing something right!”

Plymouth College Head of Sixth Form, Jonathan Shields said: “We are delighted to be crowned winners in the 2009 Make Your Mark Challenge. Our students have worked extremely hard to get this far and displayed creativity, dedication and a flair for enterprise. The Make Your Mark Challenge is a great opportunity for young people because it nurtures their creativity and helps them develop valuable life skills.”

Plymouth College student Jess Evans said: “It feels amazing to be the 2009 winners. 73,000 people entered this competition so we never expected to get this far so it has been a real surprise. We are so excited to be going to Belgrade and look forward to taking our idea further.”

Rachel Riley said: “The Make Your Mark Challenge is a great way to get young people interested and excited in business and becoming entrepreneurs. It is vital to inspire and develop the skill set of these future entrepreneurs as they will help to drive our economy in years to come. This year we urged all entrants to consider the environmental impact of their entries and we were not disappointed.”