East Anglian students crowned Real Business Challenge Champions

4 min read14 March 2017 Partner content

Young entrepreneurs from Bungay win Coca-Cola European Partners’ Real Business Challenge with a campaign to promote the Special Olympics GB National Game.

A team of students from Bungay High School are celebrating being crowned champions of this year’s Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) Real Business Challenge, after impressing a panel of industry leaders with a campaign to promote awareness of the Special Olympics GB (SOGB) National Games.

Now in its thirteenth year, The Real Business Challenge is designed to inspire and educate young people aged 13-15, helping them gain the skills they need to have a competitive edge in the job market. The number of schools entering the competition has increased year on year, with this year’s competition reaching over 100,000 students and more than half a million to date.

As part of their prize, students from Bungay High School have been awarded a VIP experience to London including a show and dinner, as well as an employability workshop to further develop the skills they gained during the competition. This comes in addition to the £1,000 students were awarded for their school after winning the East Anglia regional final last month in Norwich.

The Bungay High School students fended off strong competition, with more than 1,000 schools entering this year’s Real Business Challenge across 11 regions nationwide. The students’ creativity and business skills were put to the test in a series of practical challenges which centred on developing a campaign to support SOGB, helping to raise awareness for the charity and its National Games. CCEP business volunteers were on hand to mentor the teams, giving students encouragement and professional advice before presenting their ideas to a panel of judges from the worlds of business, charity and education.

Following the series of 11 regional finals between 24^th January and 10^th February, a dedicated judging day took place in London to decide the overall winners. Bringing their years of industry experience and expertise to the judging panel were Julian Hunt, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications at Coca-Cola European Partners, Karen Wallin, CEO for Special Olympics GB and Liz Lowe, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Manager at ‎Coca-Cola Great Britain.

The judges reviewed the different elements of the students’ campaigns, including their presentations, bus stop posters and radio adverts and each school was scored against a set of criteria focused on business viability, presentation and professionalism, creativity and SOGB focus.

Angelo Goduti, Head Teacher at Bungay High School, said: "We are delighted and extremely proud to have won the Real Business Challenge Final - this is a significant achievement for our participating students. The girls, who are an absolute credit to Bungay High School, have demonstrated their ability to be creative and innovative under pressure. We are extremely grateful to Coca-Cola European Partners for offering students an opportunity to work with a real business and gain valuable work related skills and experience."

Gina Solimeno, ‎Education Programme Manager at Coca-Cola European Partners, said: “Congratulations to Bungay High School on being crowned overall winners of this year’s competition. Each and every one of the schools taking part displayed an impressive level of business acumen and made the decision for our judging panel a particularly difficult one. With that said, Bungay High School’s campaign showed a great depth of creativity, professionalism and business viability that really captured the essence of Special Olympics GB. The competition as a whole has enabled us to shine a light on the importance of inspiring, motivating and supporting the development of young talent across Great Britain, and we hope that the process will help equip students with the tools they need to enter the world of work.”

Karen Wallin, CEO for Special Olympics Great Britain, added: “Special Olympics GB has been overwhelmed by the standards set by schools across the country in this year’s Coca-Cola European Partners Real Business Challenge. It is an honour once again for us to be the central focus of this brilliant project by Coca-Cola European Partners. We are just five months away from our biggest event every four years when around 2,600 Special Olympics GB athletes with learning disabilities will be in Sheffield to take part in our National Games across 20 different sports. To have the ability to reach out with the Special Olympics GB message to thousands of young people and students across the country through The Real Business Challenge is very special to us.”