Sixty-one teams of school pupils from across the Bradford district have won a place in the Step Up Enterprise Market Challenge final after impressing judges with their innovative business ideas.
More than 200 entries were made to the Bradford Council-run scheme which aims to encourage children aged five to 19 to get involved in enterprise and think about what makes a successful business flourish.
They all took part in Dragons Den-style assessments featuring local business people during March and the winning entries will now sell their products at markets held in Bradford city centre and Keighley in July.
Phil Hunter, Bradford Council's Lead Education Officer for 14-19 year olds, said: "The standard of entries this year has been amazing and there are some fantastic products and services which will now be taken to market.
"Some of these young people have overcome significant barriers to reach this stage and we are delighted to be able to fund them with up to £100 each to buy the materials they need to make their business idea a reality."
Teams were judged on a range of criteria including originality of their idea, creativity, teamwork and presentation skills. Representatives from major local companies, including Seabrook Crisps and Bombay Stores, took part in the judging.
The two top scoring entries over the five panel days were Marshfield Primary School's Brilliant Entrepreneurs who pitched their own joke book and bookbands and Everything Chocolate from Gateway Christian Centre who produce homemade chocolate items.
Other impressive ideas making their way through to the final are:
Hollingwood's Fine Preserves from Hollingwood Primary School where pupils have been growing their own strawberry plants and are turning it into their own brand of jam
Belt Up Buddies from St Stephens CE Primary where pupils have designed a range of in-car accessories to promote seatbelt use for children
Masai Magic from Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College who have developed a Fairtrade link with a village in Kenya which produces jewellery and accessories.
The winning teams now have three more months to develop their products and services before trading takes place on July 2 on Church Green in Keighley and July 9 in Darley Street in Bradford.
Teams will retain all takings on the day and the best-performing stalls in terms of innovation, marketing and profits will share an additional prize fund of £3,000.
