PRIMARY school entrepreneurs have taken up Sir Richard Branson’s challenge to each turn £5 into a flourishing business.

The Year five and six pupils at Red Hall Primary School in Darlington are taking part in Virgin Money’s Make £5 Grow initiative, which aims to get children thinking about enterprise and business skills at a young age so they form part of their development.

Under the scheme each pupil in a class is loaned £5. The pupils then pool their money to develop and make products they can sell, with any profits retained by the school after the loan is repaid to the bank.

Foundation for Jobs, the award winning partnership aimed at tackling youth unemployment, helps Virgin Money staff deliver the project in Darlington primary schools and the aim of Make £5 Grow is to develop key business skills at an early age.

Fifty pupils from the school are taking part in the scheme which will see them develop business plans for products they wish to make before a Dragons Den style session will see those narrowed down to three or four ideas to take forward.

The pupils will then make those products before selling them at an outside venue in early December.

Estelle Vasey, Community Coordinator at Virgin Money said: “Enterprise education helps equip young people with the basic skills, understanding and attitude they will need in future life and in the world of business.

“Virgin Money’s Make £5 Grow scheme helps to deliver those skills, but it is also about having great fun.”

Foundation for Jobs is a national award winning initiative involving Darlington Borough Council, The Northern Echo and the Darlington Partnership of public and private sector organisations.

It has worked with more than 3,200 young people aged between 10 and 24 since its launch in 2012.

A major strand of the campaign is linking young people with industry while they are still at school.

Research has shown that engaging children in work related activities while still in education can lead to them being up to five times less likely to be unemployed at the age of 25.

For more details contact Foundation for Jobs co-ordinator Owen McAteer on owen.mcateer@darlington.gov.uk