Students from Leicester Grammar School have been crowned Best Overall Company at the Young Enterprise East Midlands Regional Final 2021. The final (held digitally this year instead of in person due to Covid-19), on 27 May 2021, celebrated the achievements of students who have set up and run a company over the academic year as part of the Young Enterprise Company Programme.

Four teams from across the East Midlands competed to win a range of awards including the Innovation Award, Teamwork Award and Best Presentation.  The overall YE Company of the Year winning team, Kaizen will go on to represent the East Midlands at the Young Enterprise UK Company of the Year Final (and potentially represent the UK in the JA European final).

Young Enterprise is a national charity which works to equip young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to succeed in the changing world of work. Young Enterprise’s vision is that every young person is given an equal opportunity to learn the vital skills needed to earn and look after their money, to develop an enterprising mindset and to make a valuable contribution to their communities and wider society.

This year, students across the country have set up companies over the academic year, making all the decisions about their business, from deciding the company name and product, to creating a business plan, managing their finances and selling their products – despite challenging conditions due to Covid-19. 

The winning team Kaizen created and sold a range of environmental books for children to help them learn about ways to help our planet.  This team also won the Customer Focus and Marketing Award and their company presentation was judged to be the best at the digital final.

The competition entries were scored by judges and support was given for the awards from Nottingham Business School, Browne Jabobsen LLP, The Nottingham and East Midlands Railway.   The judges also awarded a range other awards to YE student companies from Queen Elizabeth Grammar School from Derbyshire, Nottingham High School and Spalding Grammar School from Lincolnshire.  

Sharon Davies, Chief Executive of Young Enterprise, said: 

“Reaching the Company Programme Regional Final represents an inspirational journey with many months of hard work, teamwork, creativity and resilience; congratulations Kaizen! The experience and skills students from every team will have developed will stay with them for many years to come and will make a tangible difference to their futures. Young people have shown particular resilience this year by continuing with their product development and sales despite long periods of lockdown measures being in place”