Students Through to Finals of Pants Challenge
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Business minded students at Walsall College have earned a place in the finals of national underwear design competition – The ‘Pantrepreneur Challenge’ – a creative and entrepreneurial competition which has seen the students successfully design, market and sell their own range of Olympic themed pants.
The competition, run in partnership with Gazelle and fair trade underwear brand Pants to Poverty, aims to encourage collaboration and ideas generation, as well as lead students through a practical business process.
Colleges across the nation competed for a place in the finals, and Walsall College Access to Higher Education students are one of just three teams selected for the last stage of the competition. They will now travel to London on Friday 15th June to pitch their business to a panel to experts including Pants to Poverty founder, Ben Ramsden.
Ben Ramsden said: “I have been really impressed by all the Pantrepreneur participants, but the three finalists have particularly excelled at forming teams, developing and executing business plans, and making a profit.”
Walsall College student, Donna Stevenson said: “The competition was very intense so to reach the finals is a great achievement that we are incredibly proud of. We worked well as a team but also used our individual strengths to complete the various elements of the project.”
Fintan Donohue, CEO of Gazelle, said: “The Pantrepreneur Challenge is a fantastic example of the applied approach to learning that Gazelle wish to see accelerate over the next five years. It is emblematic of what we are aiming to achieve – enabling Further Education college students to have the mindset and skills to connect with business communities, social enterprise and commercial reality.
“The feedback from students engaged in the Pantrepreneur Challenge confirms that their learning was significantly enhanced through a collaborative style of working, which closely matches a real business environment.”
The overall winning team will get the once in a lifetime chance to travel to India to see the Pants to Poverty supply chain, first hand. Runners up will put their business skills into action by running a ‘Pants to Poverty’ stall at a music festival during the summer, and the third prize will be a year’s worth of Pants to Poverty underwear.
