Leicester College has linked up with Patterson’s Commercial Law and Sir Thomas White Loan Charity to help entrepreneurial students get their business ideas off the ground.

Tina Thorpe the Vice Principal for Curriculum at Leicester College; David Howard the Chairman of Board of Trustees; Rik Pancholi the Director of Pattersons Commercial Law; Yvette Sexton the Director Business, Enterprise, Computer Science, Accountancy and Travel and Tourism at Leicester College.

David Howard, Chair of Trustees of The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity, said:

“The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity is delighted to be supporting the first-ever Pitch Your Passion competition whilst also continuing to develop its relationship with Leicester College, having supported other competitions in previous years.

“As a charity, we’re dedicated to helping entrepreneurs in Leicestershire make their businesses a reality through our interest-free loans of up to £20,000. In backing the Pitch Your Passion competition, we hope that we can encourage younger entrepreneurs to pursue a career in business – and make them aware of the support available from The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity.”

The competition is open to full and part-time level 3 or above students at the College including adult learners aged 21+. If you want to enter you will need to complete the business plan template on Moodle and return it to allthingsenterprise@leicestercollege.ac.uk

You will need to submit the Pitch Your Passion business plan template and short video explaining:

• what your business idea is
• how you came up with the idea
• how you would spend the money
• what difference winning would make to you.

Leicester College has seen some fantastic success stories in the world of business such as Will Prentice who founded successful company Elite Scooters. Will completed a BTEC in Enterprise at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy at the College.

Rupinder Drew, Business Enterprise Manager at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy said:

“We are thrilled to have Pattersons Commercial Law and Sir Thomas White Loan Charity sponsoring this competition as their shared ethos of encouraging and supporting new start-ups will hopefully inspire and encourage college students to set up their businesses. The prizes are very generous and the professional support is in place to help the winners focus on getting their ideas off the ground through specialist advice and guidance.”

There are five prizes to be won:

• 1^st prize – £1000 plus five hours of professional support
• 2nd prize – £600 plus three hours of professional support
• 3rd prize – £400 plus two hours of professional support
• 4th and 5th place prizes – £100 each.

The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 2 March 2018.

Read the Pitch Your Passion Terms and conditions.