Sports and @Academy92 students lift Market Challenge trophy
Sport and Academy 92 students from Trafford College have been crowned Market Stall Champions 2018 at this year’s Altrincham Market Challenge.
The talented team bowled over this year’s judges and ran away with the coveted title thanks to their ‘keepy-uppy’ initiative, which saw them challenging members of the public to a minute-long keepy-uppy battle. The entrepreneurial students also held a silent auction for a night’s stay at Hotel Football, as well as selling keepy-uppy merchandise to help ensure their venture was victorious as most profitable stall.
Proceeds from their winning venture will now be donated to Forever Manchester, a charity that raises money to fund and support community activity across Greater Manchester.
Ibrahim Morris, who is studying Level 3 sport, said: “The whole experience has developed my communication and sales skills, as we had to approach visitors to the market and convince them about the charity we were supporting. This was a challenging task, but we managed to make more than £250 in profit for Forever Manchester which is a fantastic achievement considering we’ve never done anything like this before.”
Fellow Level 3 sport student Kamar Moncrieffe said: “Getting to interact with the community and promoting ourselves was a really good experience, especially after hearing the positive feedback we were getting. However, even with all the positive responses, the best feeling was knowing how much we raised for charity and how much it could help someone.”
Level 3 sport student Sam Adetiloye added: “This event has also taught me lots about organisation and planning and I was excited and delighted when we were announced as the winners. The hard work truly paid off!”
A record number of students and stalls took part in the 7th annual Market Challenge which forms part of the UK’s most successful celebration of markets, the Love Your Local Market (LYLM) campaign.
Business minded students from across the College were tasked with the challenge of creating an idea for a stall with a small budget, with which they had to buy their products or service, and market and design their stall. As well as presenting students with an opportunity to develop team work, enterprise and employability skills, the event also supports the College’s initiative to create a new wave of entrepreneurs who will contribute to the continuing rejuvenation of Altrincham Town Centre.
Business ideas included ‘Calm’, which saw hair and beauty students selling products that aid relaxation, ‘Mac-attack’, a stall featuring a variety of flavoured macarons made by hospitality students, and ‘Healthy Intentions’, which was run by health and social care students offering juices and fruit kebabs for children.
A panel of judges including the College’s Principal, Lesley Davies OBE, Neil Clough, Series 9 finalist from the hit TV show, ‘The Apprentice’ and Susan Aldridge, CEO Altrincham & Sale Chamber of Commerce had the difficult task of choosing winners in categories including most profitable team (overall winner), best planning and research, and best dressed stall promotion.
Other winning teams on the day included:
- Most income /overall winner – Keep Calm and Keepy-Uppy (Sports Team)
- Best overall plan/research – Mac-Attack (Hospitality Team)
- Best Dressed stall (joint winner) – Calm (Hair & Beauty Team)
- Best Dressed stall (joint winner) – Memories Everlasting (Health & Childcare team)
- Most innovative – 3D (Engineering Team)
- Best Team working – Rainbow Cakes (Foundation Learning Team)
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