Students from Ballakermeen High School and Castle Rushen High School are the first to have been involved in a new format for Junior Achievement Isle of Man’s company programme.

Nine teams from Ballakermeen and seven from Castle Rushen took part in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event, presenting their proposals to a panel of advisers drawn from some of the Island’s leading businesses.

The JA company programme requires student teams to form and run a company over the course of the academic year, marketing and financing a product or service and, ideally, making a profit.

Among the business proposals outlined at Castle Rushen were an online events calendar, Manx-themed greetings cards supporting overseas ethical projects, a programme to boost house ‘brand loyalty’ in schools, establishing Fair Trade outlets in schools and a helpline-style website for teenagers.

Business ventures put forward at Ballakermeen included a CD of local bands, branded hoodies, a recycling project, school 25th anniversary merchandise, fashion accessory pom-poms and a board game.

JA IOM chief executive Sue Cook said: ‘We have split the 2009-2010 company programme process into two pre-finals rounds. Round one – inspired by BBC’s Dragon’s Den – was introduced as a way of bouncing around ideas, giving students pointers and encouraging them to “think bigger”. Round two, to be staged early next year, will be about focusing on company formation, raising capital, assigning roles and trading.’

Sue went on to express her gratitude to those members of the business community who had given their time, shared their expertise and were helping equip young people with essential skills for life.

Companies represented on the business panels were Barclays Wealth, Cable & Wireless, Canada Life, Capital International, Friends Provident International, G4S, HSBC Security Services, Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce, Isle of Man Steam Packet, MAC Financial, Minnesota, Paragon, PDMS, Sanzar Solutions and Strive PR.

Sue concluded: ‘The sessions at both schools were lively and revealed some innovative ideas that over the coming months can be developed in the run-up to the Isle of Man finals for the Junior Achievement Company of the Year competition in April.’

That’s when one company will be selected to represent the Island in the JA/YE European finals in Sardinia next July.