Local pupils impressed AXA Wealth in their Skillstree Curriculum Challenge (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Basingstoke pupils impressed AXA Wealth in their Skillstree Curriculum Challenge

7:00am Sunday 19th August 2012 in Business By Richard Garfield

PUPILS from across Basingstoke rose to the Skillstree Curriculum Challenge.

Year 9 students from local schools competed in the annual contest, held at Queen Mary’s College, to design a financial product The challenge is part of Basingstoke Consortium’s Skillstree event programme, which is designed to prepare young people for working life and increase their employability skills.

This year, the event was sponsored by AXA Wealth, providing a real business focus for students as they worked in teams to develop a campaign to show they understood the financial, marketing and business benefits of their ideas, before pitching them to a team of judges.

Impressed with the students’ efforts, Andy Barclay, head of corporate responsibility at AXA Wealth, based in Winterthur Way, Basingstoke, said: “We were delighted to be involved in this important initiative, and to play a part in helping young people to prepare for the workplace.” The overall winners of the chall-enge was a team from Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College , in Basingstoke, who won £500 for the school, while the runners-up were teams from Everest Community Academy , in Popley, Basingstoke.

Prizes were given for a number of areas including best presentation, marketing campaign and teamwork, and were presented by the Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Councillor Martin Biermann .

Basingstoke Consortium chief executive Sue Riley said: “This annual event is an important one in our employability calendar, helping young people to put into practice the skills they will need in working life. “We are grateful for AXA Wealth’s support this year, which gave the challenge a heightened and realistic business focus that the students found both rewarding and stimulating.”