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Students take up Cameron challenge

Prime Minister David Cameron has issued an appeal to budding entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting their own business, saying "now is the time to do it".

Students from Robert Gordon University are taking steps to do just that and are competing for the Bank of Scotland Award, which encourages the entrepreneurs of tomorrow to come up with viable strategies for new business ventures.

The £500 prize is to be presented by David Gray, Business Development North of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group Commercial on Thursday 28 April with the top names engraved on a trophy for posterity.

This event is the highlight of a programme at Aberdeen Business School, which aims to provide third year students with the grounding and confidence to take forward their ideas and equip them with skills necessary for creating new ventures.

Teams have been working diligently over three months to develop a professional business plan and to successfully pitch their new business concept. In the past, ideas have varied from refining rape seed oil as a bio-fuel to novelty recycling bins as part of a primary school educational programme.

This year three teams have been shortlisted from sixteen teams to compete in the finals. The competition has previously resulted in real success for one winning team, 'Dimension', whose business has been running for three years. The team of students established 'DMNZN.com', an Aberdeen-based nightlife marketing agency.

Dr Janice Freeman who co-ordinates the New Business Project said, "This is an extremely popular project where students truly engage in the process of developing entrepreneurial ventures which offer an opportunity to cultivate real life skills.

"Student awareness of entrepreneurship as a career option is raised as they experience many of the creative and operational factors involved in starting a new business. Encouragement and support of this kind is exactly what we need to spur new initiatives and very much in keeping with today's agenda for driving our economy forward".

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