News: Success for Rotherham business students

Level 3 Business students from Rotherham College of Arts and Technology (RCAT) have reason to celebrate after recent success within two of the region's most exciting student business challenges.

Five students on the BTEC Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma in Business have won the Rotherham Youth Enterprise College & Sixth Form Business Challenge.

Teams from colleges and sixth forms within the borough competed in the challenge to produce a business proposition for a new food retail business to be based in Rotherham Town Centre.

Robert Croxton, Adil Hussain, Liam Shaw, Phillip Swift and James Ufton were thrilled that their business plan for an American themed diner impressed the judges.

Students Robert Croxton and Phillip Swift later went on to achieve further success in the Northern Rail Marketing & PR Challenge with their peers Dylan Johnson, Jodie Leigh Thackery, Kelly Stockdale and Chelsea Scales.

Teams competing in the challenge were asked to create a campaign to promote their chosen travel destination using a number of methods, including posters, TV, radio, newspapers and on-line.

Entries were submitted from schools and colleges in Selby, Tadcaster, Rotherham, Barnsley, Bridlington, Doncaster, Harrogate, Beverley, Hull, Halifax, Grimsby, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.

RCAT's team "Avenue" were shortlisted for the final and after presenting their campaign to a panel of expert judges became the winners for the "Best Research" category. The team were awarded one of the four runners up prizes at the competition, with Grimsby's Franklin College producing the winning campaign that will form part of Northern Rail's summer marketing campaign.

Avenue Team Leader Phillip Swift said: "The challenge gave us the opportunity to work towards a real life promotional brief putting into practice what we have learned on the course. We have also developed our pitching skills and now feel much more confident presenting to larger audiences."

William Oxley, a member of the judging panel and Director of YES (formally YPEF Services Ltd) praised team Avenue for their commitment to the project. He said: "The students from Rotherham College of Arts and Technology tackled the brief set by them from Northern Rail in a very innovative manner. They presented a coordinated and comprehensive proposal which had some outstanding features, such as the quality of the research. In a challenge where the competition was high, the team stood out."

RCAT website

Images: RCAT