AROUND 140 Worcester Sixth Form College students took part in an annual Entrepreneur Day.

The Business A-level and BTEC students enjoyed presentations from successful local entrepreneurs and businesses including Katy Rees, from Smile Education, a former WSFC student, Zeke Abry, a product developer at Gtech, Neil Westwood, from Magic Whiteboards, and Gemma Went, digital strategist and business mentor.

They gave the students insights into their business journeys, how they got to where they are now and what helped them to persevere.

Joanne Murphy, from the University of Worcester’s Business School, later outlined local degree courses available.

Students worked in groups on their main task of the day which was to brainstorm and develop ideas for an app targeted at 16-19 year olds.

The visitors then judged the shortlisted presentations to decide on who deserved to be the winning group and which two teams were runners up.

The winning team came up with a virtual shopping centre app, and the judges were impressed by the idea which they felt could be a viable business idea.

The event was organised by second year BTEC Business students as part of their coursework unit for event management.

Gemma Went, who runs her own business mentoring company also presented a prize of a lifetime membership to her Simply Smart Business academy to Georgina Luxton, a BTEC Business student.

Kerry Morris, teacher of Business Studies at Worcester Sixth Form College, said: “The day went really well and inspired students to think about becoming an entrepreneur. Students really enjoyed the day and benefited from having the opportunity to talk to the entrepreneurs to expand their knowledge. They got the chance to put their business knowledge into practice and develop skills that will help them in the future. Hopefully some of them will aspire to be great business entrepreneurs.”