Students through to Young Business Dragons finals

Students from two Carmarthenshire schools are through to the finals of the Swansea Bay Young Business Dragons.
The teams from St John Lloyd Catholic Comprehensive and Bryngwyn School in Llanelli will take on teams from Olchfa Comprehensive School and Bishop Vaughan Catholic School in Swansea, and Dyffryn Comprehensive School and St Joseph’s Roman Catholic School in Neath Port Talbot in the Dragon’s Den style final of the entrepreneurial business challenge this Thursday.
They go through from the semi finals held at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli, last month.
The Year 10 students will be putting forward Olympic-inspired business ideas to a panel of top business figures at Margam Orangery. The winning team and business idea will scoop £1,000 prize money and the coveted title of Swansea Bay Young Business Dragons 2011.
The event, which is sponsored by Wales & West Utilities and organised by Swansea Bay Partnership in association with Careers Wales, has seen over 3,500 students from the Swansea Bay area put forward their creative ideas for a business opportunity around next year’s Olympics.
Over a series of heats the teams from schools across the area have expanded their business ideas with the help of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and mentors from local businesses to develop full marketing strategies.
‘Continental Cuisine’ from St John Lloyd Catholic Comprehensive School in Llanelli has reached the final with their business idea themed around food from the nations competing in the Olympic Games. The team’s business idea would utilise 10m long catering vans, which would be pitched at the various Olympic sites – each offering exciting continental-inspired food which would be rotated on a daily basis.

Bryngwyn Comprehensive School’s ‘Bag A Seat’ team joins them in the final after impressing the panellists with their innovative seat and cooler bag combination for spectators.
The team has designed a comfortable memory foam cushion for spectators, which has a cooler bag underneath the seat. The product is made up of three easy to fold sections which are all conveniently stored in a backpack.
Carmarthenshire County Council executive board member for regeneration and leisure Cllr Clive Scourfield said: “I want to wish our teams well in the finals. They have both come up with exciting ideas.”