Elevate, from St Ninian’s High School, have become 2021 Junior Achievement Student Company of the Year 2021.

The team - Abigail Pontee, Claire Clucas, Sam Gill, Hannah Lancaster and Jadwiga Niski - competed against 20 other student teams to take the title after impressing the judges with their idea for paper soap, which disintegrates after washing your hands. Their product is being marketed as an eco-friendly and affordable option for cleaning hands.

Over the last nine months more than 120 students from Ballakermeen High School, Castle Rushen High School, Queen Elizabeth II High School, St Ninian’s High School and Ramsey Grammar School participated in the company programme, the world’s top entrepreneurial programme for young people in education.

Organised by Manx charity Junior Achievement, the company programme is supported by 30 volunteer business mentors who donate their time to work with the teams.

The students, aged 16 to 17, form a mini-company consisting of no more than six members. They are tasked to raise money to get their business off the ground and then take their product or service to market.

Each team member is allocated a role, which includes managing director, finance director, operations manager, company secretary, sales and marketing and IT.

After running their business for nine months the student companies came together to take part in the national final that determined who would take home the JA Student Company of the Year title and trophy.

Runner-ups were Orion from Ballakermeen High School for their Aroma shower steamers, and third place went to Eclipse from Ballakermeen High School for their eco- friendly phone cases.

Research carried out by Junior Achievement Europe indicates that up to 15 per cent of students who take part in the programme go on to become self-employed before they reach the age of 30.

Junior Achievement chief executive officer Sue Cook said: ’Over the last few months students have faced a lot of uncertainty and disruption as their education has been unavoidably paused. We felt it was all the more important this year, therefore, to provide them with an opportunity to develop their skills and gain some valuable work experience.

’The aim of the programme is to get young people to reflect on and learn from their experiences of running their own business. The programme can help them to identify potential career opportunities they would perhaps otherwise not have considered and to explore how best to develop their career pathways.’

It was sponsored by HSBC.