A GROUP of young entrepreneurs have been given a taste of running their own business thanks to a week-long summer project.

The 17 Chester-le-Street teenagers have been taking part in an Enterprise and Money Skills Week, designed to give them an insight into the world of work.

During the project the group split into teams with each choosing a product to sell. They then took part in a number of expert workshops covering areas such as planning, budgeting and marketing before selling their products at Chester-le-Street market.

The products chosen by the groups all had an ethical edge and included handbags made by women in Italian prisons, a CD of songs performed by persecuted African choirs and “seedboms”, made from recycled egg boxes.

The event was organised by social local landlord Cestria Community Housing, Durham County Council’s One Point youth service and the financial education charity MyBnk and was funded by North East Procurement.

Cestria’s financial inclusion manager Suzanne Jobson, who co-ordinated the project, said: “I was really impressed with how well the groups did - they all completely sold out of their products on the last day which was fantastic and have said that they feel it has been a really valuable experience.”

The teenagers, aged from 16 to 18, were allowed to keep any profit they made from selling their products - making £391 between them during the week.

The Enterprise and Money Skills Week was supported by a number of local business including CDC Enterprise Agency, IPB Communications, Five Lamps, Keepmoat and Springs Roofing.