YOUNG Enterprise, the scheme under which school pupils set up their own businesses, has burst into action this spring. At St Neots Community College, all 1,200 pupils left the curriculum for the day and took part in a conference day – each year group wit

YOUNG Enterprise, the scheme under which school pupils set up their own businesses, has burst into action this spring.

At St Neots Community College, all 1,200 pupils left the curriculum for the day and took part in a conference day - each year group with a different topic.

Sixth formers developed their young enterprise project, EDZ, which makes soft toys. Year sevens designed sandals for a fashion show, year eights examined healthy lifestyles and a sixth form theatre group created a drama based on the year eights' ideas.

Year nines focused on choosing the subjects for their GCSEs with a view to their careers, led by Connexions, the young people's careers advisory service, and year 10s worked with Bizboom, run by Cambridgeshire Young Enterprize, talking about how to set up a company.

Bex Spalding-Green, 17, the secretary and production director of EDZ, said: "The day created a wonderful opportunity for all members of our young enterprise company to work together for a six-hour period. It enabled us to achieve a variety of goals including producing over 70 extra soft toys.

* AT Abbey College in Ramsey, year sevens worked for the Young Enterprise project, taking part in business-related activities with BoomBizz. This project, run by Cambridgeshire Enterprise Services, aims to teach young people how to run a business and how it can be fun.

Samantha Potts, the BoomBizz administrator for CES, said: "We normally undertake these exercises with year eight and above but these year seven students got the hang of them extremely quickly and asked very intelligent questions. It was a pleasure to work with them."

Several Cambridgeshire schools took park in a Young Enterprise training day at Wyboston Lakes. They included pupils from St Neots Community College, Longsands Community College, St Neots; Sandy Upper School, Beds; Hills Road Sixth Form College and St Mary's Cambridge.

The teenagers honed up their presentation skills, learning about report writing, marketing and display, as well as finances.