20 | Aycliffe Today Business
Pictures by Lee Dobson
(www.leedobsonphotography.com)
TOMORROW’S WORKFORCE
AT THE XCEL
1
The annual Future Business Magnates competition was held at the Xcel
Centre in July. Martin Walker reports on what’s becoming an important
educational event for local businesses...
Business Durham might just have the Midas Touch.
(STEM) theme. It worked a treat.
No sooner had I sat down with Gary Chaplin from
Business Durham to discuss this year’s Future Business
Magnates event, than we’d been rudely interrupted by a
call.
“Changing the focus of the competition has led to the
teams coming up with better products, said Gary.
”
It was Twister; the local band Gary had booked to play at
this year’s glittering awards ceremony at the Xcel Centre
on Aycliffe Business Park.
The four-piece group, from Peterlee, had just been signed
up by Universal Music, the UK’s leading music company
and home to artists such as Take That, Florence & The
Machine, Mumford & Sons and The Rolling Stones, no
less.
“But don’t worry, lead vocalist Stevie Stoker reassured a
”
worried-looking Gary. “We’ll still do your gig.
”
Of course, despite their potential stardom in the offing,
Twister honoured their booking for Future Business
Magnates and delighted guests with an impressive
repertoire of cover and self-penned indie, pop and rock
tracks.
It was an entertaining end to an eight-month competition
which started back in November, when year 8 school
groups (second year pupils, in old money) were married
up with local firms to work on this year’s event, and
perhaps fitting that potential stars of tomorrow in Twister
would share the same auditorium as County Durham’s
potential future business magnates.
Gary is Enterprise Development Manager for Business
Durham, the business gateway to Durham County
Council, and says this year’s event was the best yet.
Organisers decided to tweak the focus of the competition
to take on a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
“We challenged young people and businesses to solve
today’s problems with tomorrow’s technology, and some
of the ideas were amazing.
“It’s a hugely rewarding project to be involved with.
In fact, I’d go as far to say it’s a glorified hobby. The
satisfaction from organising it, seeing the young people
enjoy it and seeing businesses engaging with education
so passionately is priceless.
”
Business Durham took ownership of Future Business
Magnates four years ago, while the next competition,
due to start in November this year, will be FBM’s 10th
anniversary.
BD’s Business Development Director Sarah Slaven says
this year’s event had the largest number of schools
involved to date - 24 out of the 34 secondary schools
within the county.
“I was part of the judging process and every team
that we saw came across as enthusiastic about the
experience they’ve had, says Sarah.
”
“We had a STEM theme this year because we want to
educate young people about the job opportunities there
are in the science, technology and engineering sectors.
“The actual night was their reward and the enthusiasm
and excitement in the room was fantastic.
”
Newton Aycliffe schools aren’t unfamiliar with FBM. They
embrace it, and receive great support from local firms.
Greenfield Community College won the competition last
year and also won best team award this time around.