Article summary: We held our fourth Apprentice Vs Dragons’ Den final during National Apprenticeship Week, and the competition was stronger than ever. Hear more about what happened on the night, plus an exclusive interview with the winning team – ‘Glow’ from Toynbee School.
On Thursday, February 13, we celebrated the final of our 4th annual Apprentice Vs Dragons’ Den competition. Taking place during National Apprenticeship Week, the initiative aims to raise awareness of apprenticeships within schools and the benefits they offer to young people.
We welcomed the final 5 teams from local schools, who pitched their projects to the panel of Dragons, which were all products aiming to solve one of modern life’s problems. For the first time ever, all project ideas were apps, and the ideas this year included: Safe Edge, an app to help the fight against knife crime (The Portsmouth Academy), Health Hit, an app to encourage Healthy Eating (Purbrook Park School), Cogneato, a personalised tutoring app (Horndean Technology College) and ThoughtPal, an app to prevent procrastination (Horndean Technology College). The Dragons were thoroughly impressed with all the business plans, which covered financial projections, marketing strategies and competitor analysis.
This year, our panel of Dragons consisted of PETA’s CEO, Fiona Stilwell, who was joined by representatives from PETA’s partner companies: Chris Adams (DP World Southampton), Tony Mason (PALL Corporation) and James Sessions (Prysmian), who quizzed the teams after each presentation about their business plans.
After a tough deliberation, the Dragons returned with the results and were thrilled to announce Team Glow from Toynbee School as the overall winners. Their product idea – an app called ‘Glow’, was designed to make social media safer for users, by filtering out inappropriate content, and using AI to detect fake news and misinformation.
The team, which was the youngest of all the finalists, was made up of year 9 students and close friends Sofia Khokhar, Imogen Brierley, Charlotte Hepworth, Tej Swarup and Yash Swarup, who were thrilled to win the £500 prize.
There were 4 other awards up for grabs for Best Design, Best Business Plan, Best Presentation and Most Original Concept. See the full list of winners below, congratulations to you all!
• PEI Genesis Most Original Concept: Health Hit (Purbrook Park School)
• PALL Corporation Best Design: Cogneato (Horndean Technology College)
• DP World Best Presentation: ThoughtPal (Horndean Technology College)
• Prysmian Best Business Plan: Safe Edge (The Portsmouth Academy)
We spoke to Team Glow after the event to find out how they found the experience:
Team ‘Glow’, firstly huge congratulations! How does it feel to win?
Imogen: “It feels great because we put so much effort into this, it's good to know that all of our hard work has paid off.”
Yash: “Yes especially as it was really stressful towards the end.”
Charlotte: “It was also quite surprising because all the other teams, they were really good and we were definitely up against some challenge but yeah we're really really pleased.”
You should be pleased! So please tell me about your project.
Yash: “Glow is basically an app that filters your social media and makes it so that it's showing you things that are of interest to you and it makes it safer. So it's not showing inappropriate unsafe things, and it makes social media more enjoyable, which is definitely something important with this generation.”
Why did you choose this topic, why was it so important to you?
Sofia: “I think we've probably all struggled with social media, I know for example for me when I had TikTok, it brought up loads of videos that I didn't feel comfortable having, and so we wanted to kind of come out with something that we know other people have struggled with and that's how we landed on our app.”
Tej: “Yeah we were told to solve a modern-day problem and I think this is probably one of the biggest ones and this is a good way instead of just taking it out, but making it better so people can still use it.”
Charlotte: “I just think because social media is only going to grow really and I think there are a lot of problems with it, as good as it is, but I think the best way to stop all these problems is not just to eradicate social media completely, it's to get rid of these problems and tackle them individually so people can still enjoy the benefits of social media.”
How did you find the process?
Yash: “It was really difficult because we had to think about all the factors and we had to think about the real-world costs and everything, but it was really interesting to see how it all came together.”
Tej: “And it was really complicated because we had to do one thing then do another thing, but I think overall that was really good because we got everything that we needed to get.”
Did you have a favourite part at all?
Imogen: “Probably like designing the whole PowerPoint that was really fun to put loads of creativity into it.”
All: “Yeah definitely.”
And how did you find presenting on the night?
Yash: “It was really nerve-racking, but it was really good because we were comfortable with our presentation.”
Tej: “I think not as nervous as I thought it would be, as we all practiced a lot and made sure that we knew everything and were prepared, so that was good.”
Charlotte: “I was quite worried at the start but once we got into the flow of things it got a lot easier.”
Yash: “All the Dragons and everything was really nice and made it really comfortable to be in.”
How was it working as a team?
Sofia: “I think it was good because we've all got our own individual assets that are really strong so for example Tej was quite good with all the creative aspects of it and then I was sort of more the marketing and finance person, I think all of our strengths really worked well together.”
Tej: “And I think it really helps that outside this we're really good friends so that definitely helped us work really well together.”
And finally, any advice for teams thinking of taking part next year?
Charlotte: “Do it!”
Sofia: “100% do it – I remember when the letter came out, I was a little bit nervous and thinking oh we have to come up with a groundbreaking thing to solve like something amazing, but I think whatever ideas you have even if it's something small, you can turn that into something really big.”
Tej: “And even if you don't win it's still so much fun to do it!”
Yash: “It's a really fun experience and it's really good for in the future like it's a great experience to have.”
Imogen: “Basically just try your best because you never know, you could end up winning!”
Charlotte: “I think just, don't be afraid, because I remember certainly me coming to this it was just nerves, honestly, but it's definitely a lot easier than it sounds because nobody expects you to do it perfectly and you know, you might end up winning.”
Thank you, Team Glow, congratulations!
