News
Get the latest information about what's going on at the Make Your Mark in Wakefield campaign.
08/03/08 Top female entrepreneurs urge Wakefield girls to make their mark on International Women’s Day
04/03/08 Ball signed by Pop star bounces back!
03/03/08 Josh’s ‘Toad-in-the-Air’ hits the mark!
22/02/08 Wildcat Jay Pitts makes his mark!
13/02/08 Mutya says Bid for the BALL!
24/07/07 MEP visits Wakefield to meet inspirational young ambassadors
11/07/07 Wakefield's first mela featured in special photgraphy exhibition
28/06/07 Youngsters make their mark at enterprise fair
27/06/07 Local company 'oils' the wheels of local enterprise
18/05/07 Local women recognised as inspiration role models
19/03/07 National skills champion backs Wakefield enterprise campaign
Jobs for the girls!
Top female entrepreneurs urge Wakefield girls to make their mark on International Women’s Day
08 March 2008
Successful local business woman Nadine Hill, founder and proprietor of The Dream PA, is one of many top female entrepreneurs to throw her support behind Girls! Make Your Mark - a campaign to encourage more young women and girls to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality and start up their own business.
Fewer women start their own business in Wakefield than men but this is not due to a lack of skills, instead it is often due to women being more considered and cautious than their male counterparts. Girls! Make Your Mark, part of the district’s Make Your Mark campaign, aims to change attitudes to business and provides young women and girls with inspiring role models who can show them that business might be for them after all.
Speaking on International Women’s Day, Saturday 8 March, Nadine Hill said: “I set up my business after becoming a mum, and now run a successful virtual assistance business which provides a remote telephone answering service to small businesses throughout the UK. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Everyone can make something of themselves. Women who succeed are the ones who dare to try it. We just have to believe in ourselves and believe that we deserve it. That’s the biggest hurdle.”
Girls! Make Your Mark ambassadors celebrated International Women’s Day in Wakefield by calling for more women in business to become ambassadors and to share their stories and experiences with others.
Mary Creagh MP said: “The Girls! Make Your Mark campaign is the most ambitious and inspiring effort yet to get young women to start their own businesses. International Women’s Day is about celebrating the achievement of women and encouraging them to achieve their full potential. There are already many successful women running their own businesses in Wakefield. It’s crucial that they have the chance to pass on their own experiences and encourage the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Other local women supporting the campaign and inspiring Wakefield girls to make their mark include:
- Kate Bagnall and Louise Hopkins, specialist recruitment consultants, who left big company life with all its perks to go it alone and haven’t regretted their move for a minute.
- Beth Goddard, who founded live arts company More! Productions after becoming a teenage mum at the age of 19.
- Claire Nicholson, who jointly founded Momentum Dance, an expanding community arts enterprise that provides opportunity and inspiration to a range of young people in the Wakefield area.
If you are a woman who runs her own business in the Wakefield district and you would like to be a Girls! Make Your Mark Ambassador please contact wakefield@makeyourmark.org.uk or call 01924 789683 today.
Ball signed by Pop Star bounces back!
04 March 2008
A rugby ball signed by pop princess Mutya Buena, age 23, and the Castleford Tigers has sold in a charity e-bay auction, raising £62 for Sport Relief, but in an unexpected twist the successful bidder, David Stephenson from Leeds, has paid up and thrown the ball back to the Make Your Mark campaign so that it can be used to raise even more cash for Sport Relief as part of the Make Your Mark with a Ball competition.
David Stephenson, an avid Castleford Tigers supporter, bought the ball but is giving up the chance to keep this one-off piece of signed memorabilia because he wants to support the fundraising effort by giving others the chance to use the ball to raise even more cash for Sport Relief.
Make Your Mark with a Ball is a competition run by Sport Relief and the Make Your Mark campaign that is asking young people to put their fundraising ideas in the spotlight using just a ball, or balls, to raise cash for vulnerable people in the UK and abroad.
Jane Walton, campaign leader for Make Your Mark says: “We were really excited when Mutya Buena and the Castleford Tigers signed up to launch the competition locally – with their help we have shown just how easy it really is to raise money with a ball. I must admit though, we didn’t expect to still have the ball at the end of the auction! Thanks to David’s generosity we are now in a position to give the ball away to a young fundraiser. If you are age 14-30 and can convince us that you can beat the £62 raised so far, we will give you the rugby ball so that you can make your idea happen.”
Josh’s ‘Toad-in-the-Air’ hits the mark!
03 March 2008
A Pontefract youngster has beat off stiff competition in the kitchen to be crowned Junior Amateur Chef of the Year.
The four finalists, Billy Roche and Josh Angell from St Wilfrid’s R.C High School, Shanelle Bateman from Airedale High School and Bethany Sharp from Wakefield Girls High School took part in Saturday’s final held at Wakefield’s Brasserie 99 restaurant.
Keeping their cool the youngsters had an hour to create their own unique dishes using fresh, seasonal, whole food produce. Cheered on by family and friends they then presented their mouth-watering delights to the awaiting judges, including the Yorkshire Post’s food writer Polly Brown and Wakefield’s Deputy Mayor, Councillor Jaqui Williams.
Impressed by the high standard Councillor Williams said: “I find it truly inspirational that the youngsters taking part in this competition have the skills and ability to produce such high quality food. It certainly bodes well for the future of the restaurant industry.”
Each of the dishes was marked on presentation, originality and recipe ingredients, skills, taste and flavour and restaurant menu appeal. After a great deal of tasting and debating Josh Angell’s ‘Toad in the Air’ comprising of pheasant breast in Yorkshire pudding with prunes followed by rice pot with butterscotch apricot, won the judges over.
Josh, 14, said of his experience: “I’ve never done anything like this before but it’s been fantastic. Working in a professional kitchen has been hard and I really felt the pressure but I want to take up a career as a chef so it’s been a great experience. I can’t believe I won.”
To reward his culinary skills, Josh picked up an IPod Nano, and will now go on to demonstrate his dishes at this weekends Food and Drink Festival in Wakefield. Josh also gets to see his main course on the menu at Brasserie 99 for a month and has a week’s work experience at the award-winning restaurant to look forward to.
Second prize went to Shanelle Bateman who created salmon steak with oaty topping served in a chilli mash followed by apricot and almond marbled fool. Shannelle picked up two tickets to Alton Towers and a weekends work experience at Brasserie 99.
The annual event, which is in its second year, is organised by Wakefield District Primary Care Trust’s Community Food and Health Team who this year teamed up with the Make Your Mark campaign, Brasserie 99 and Suma Whole Foods. The challenge went out to local pupils, aged 13-19, attracting some 30 entries from eight schools.
Jane Walton, campaign leader for Wakefield’s Make Your Mark campaign said: “We know that so many young people are passionate about food and we want to help inspire the next generation of Nigella Lawsons, Jamie Olivers and restauranters to make their mark in the food industry.”
Everyone who took part will be given the opportunity to work on developing a cookbook and maybe see their ideas turned into dishes served in school dining rooms.
Wildcat makes his mark - and inspires others to do the same!
22 February 2008
Rising rugby star Jay Pitts, age 17, is making his mark in the world of rugby, and encouraging young people in Wakefield to do the same - in aid of Sport Relief (Friday 14 – Sunday 16 March 2008). The Wakefield Wildcats player is backing Make Your Mark with a Ball – a competition run by Sport Relief and the Make Your Mark campaign that is challenging youngsters to raise cash for vulnerable people in the UK and abroad using just a ball, or balls.
The rugby ace helped to launch the competition in Wakefield on Wednesday 20 February at the Wildcats stadium by throwing his support behind a fundraising activity devised by a group of students from Cathedral School.
The enterprising young rugby enthusiasts braved the cold to take part in a sponsored mini rugby challenge at the Wildcats Stadium, aiming to raise £100 for Sport Relief. The pupils raced against the clock to move fifty Wildcats’ rugby balls from one side of the pitch to the other, and for each ball successfully ‘touched down’ Wéb-Tränslatiôns– a Wakefield based web solutions company, run by Make Your Mark ambassador Daniel Rajkumar – will donate £2 to Sport Relief.
To spur the youngsters on sporting role model Jay Pitts provided inspiration and encouragement - and blew the whistle to kickstart the activity. The rugby player, who is tipped for great things in rugby league, recently secured a full-time contract with the Wakefield Wildcats first team and before that made his mark in the Wildcats academy, and represented the England under seventeens squad against Australia.
Jay said: ‘When I heard that pupils from Cathedral School were planning to use the stadium for a fundraising activity I was really eager to get involved and to spur them on. I’m passionate about rugby and it’s really exciting to see a group of young people using the sport to change lives for the better. I hope that my involvement will inspire even more young people from Wakefield to enter the Make Your Mark with a Ball competition – it’s a great opportunity to use your passion for sport to make your mark, and raise money for a good cause.’
Make Your Mark with a Ball challenges young people to come with enterprising ways to fundraise using any type of ball – rugby ball, football, netball, volleyball or table tennis ball – and offers fundraisers the chance to win up to £1,000 in prizes.
Jane Walton, head of the Make Your Mark campaign in Wakefield, says: ‘As students at Cathedral School have proved, this is a really fun opportunity to put your enterprise skills in the spotlight. You could organise a charity cricket match, or use your enterprise talents to create a completely new ball game, and then charge people to watch. I’m sure young people in Wakefield will impress the judges with their imaginative ideas. Bounce some ideas around and give it a go!’
Other sporting figures throwing their support behind the Make Your Mark with a Ball initiative include marathon runner Paula Radcliffe and Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave.
Make Your Mark is a national campaign aimed at creating an enterprise culture among young people. The campaign has a regional hub in Wakefield, and has teamed up with Sport Relief to encourage young people to get thinking about fundraising through the Make Your Mark with a Ball competition. A range of prizes to the value of £1,000 each will be awarded to winners. For more information about the competition, prizes and how to enter go to www.makeyourmark.org/withaball and download an entrants’ pack.
Sport Relief is a UK-wide fundraising event that aims to harness the power and passion of sport to change lives for the better. The Sport Relief Weekend takes place on Friday 14 – Sunday 16 March. Go to sportrelief.com to find out more. The money you raise will be spent by Comic Relief to transform lives here in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries.
Mutya says Bid for the BALL!
8 February 2008
This is your chance to get your hands on a signed piece of Castleford Tigers RLFC memorabilia, as Make Your Mark has a Castleford Tigers’ rugby ball signed by the team - and pop princess Mutya Buena!
Chart-topping pop sensation Mutya Buena was at Castleford Tigers rugby club last Saturday to perform her debut solo single, Real Girl. Before performing the star joined the players to add her signature to a one-off rugby ball, which is now being auctioned on eBay to raise money for Sport Relief 2008 as part of the Make Your Mark with a Ball competition.
Make Your Mark with a Ball is a competition run by Sport Relief and the Make Your Mark campaign, which is asking young people to put their enterprise skills to the test by raising cash for charity using just a ball, or balls. It could be any type of ball – a rugby ball, football, netball, volleyball or table tennis ball – and if you take part you will be in with a chance of winning big cash prizes.
Mutya says: ‘Make Your Mark with a Ball is a cool competition because it’s a really easy way of supporting a good cause. Enter the competition and use a ball or balls to raise money for Sport Relief . It’s a simple as that. I’m doing it - I’ve added my signature to a rugby ball signed by the Castleford Tigers, and it’s being auctioned on eBay. Bid for the ball or start thinking about fundraising ideas of your own - it’s your chance to help change lives for the better.’
MEP visits Wakefield to meet inspirational young ambassadors
24 July 2007
Yorkshire and Humber MEP Linda McAvan was in Wakefield on Tuesday, 24 July to meet ambassadors of the Make Your Mark campaign. The visit was arranged to coincide with the first Make Your Mark Summer Garden Party, which brought ambassadors and supporters of Wakefield’s Make Your Mark campaign together to celebrate dynamic youth-led business ventures and creative projects.
Make Your Mark ambassadors are young people from the local community who are at the forefront of a major campaign to inspire the next generation of ‘go getters’ and entrepreneurs, they come from all walks of life and include business owners, artists, musicians, actors and writers. At the event visiting MEP Linda McAvan heard first hand about the inspirational activities that they are involved in, and the encouragement and inspiration they are giving to other young people.
Nadine Hill, a Virtual Assistant and proprietor of The Dream PA, used the event to launch a new book: “The Juicy Job – How to create the VA business that’s right for YOU” an e-book available from www.lulu.com which is aimed at helping aspiring virtual assistants to break into this niche market. Nadine, who is from Normanton in Wakefield, has run her own business for the last two years and is keen to share her experience to help other aspiring entrepreneurs follow in her footsteps by creating a business that will fit into their lives, she comments:
“Virtual assistance is an emerging industry in the UK. I get on average, two calls or emails per month from people – especially women - who have found my business online or in the media and want advice on how to set up and run a similar venture. I wrote this book because I realised that there was a real need for honest, practical advice. The book has already helped several new virtual assistants to side step some of the learning curves I made whilst starting out.”
Other ambassadors to meet MEP Linda McAvan at the Make Your Mark summer garden party included the owners of Tellatale Educational Productions. Tellatale is run by seven young men from Wakefield who are currently studying at New College in Pontefract and running a company in their spare time producing educational books for school children. Tellatale has recently secured a £10,000 contract from Middlesbrough Council to produce a fictional book that will feature Middlesbrough Football Club, and use football to aid children’s learning and promote reading.
Speaking at the event Linda McAvan said: “We need a multi skilled enterprising workforce that can adapt to changing circumstances and embrace new challenges. That’s why having the chance to meet with young people from Wakefield today has been so fantastic. These young people are seizing opportunities and making their ideas happen, but they are also sharing their experiences to inspire their peers. It is clear that there is a growing enterprise culture in Wakefield and that young people are leading the way.”
Make Your Mark is looking to increase the range and number of ambassadors that are involved in the Wakefield campaign. Ambassadors are generally aged between 14-30, they are people with a can do attitude who are making their ideas happen. To be an ambassador you do not necessarily have to be a business owner but you must be making you mark in some way – for example, by making an idea happen at work or in the community. If you or someone you know is making their mark get in touch with the Make Your Mark campaign by emailing wakefield@makeyourmark.org.uk or phoning 01924 789683.
Wakefield's first mela featured in special photography exhibition
11 July 2007
Councillor Clive Hudson, Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Sport was at Wakefield Art Gallery on Friday 6 July to open a specially commissioned photography exhibition to celebrate Wakefield’s first Mela. The community event, organised by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, transformed Clarence Park Arena on 9 June and brought local people together to celebrate music, dance and cultures from around the world.
The exhibition which is on public display at Wakefield Art Gallery until 22 July has been produced by local photographers, Dean Hammonds and Alan Perkins, who completed a HND in photography at Wakefield College earlier this year.
The exhibition is the result of a Make Your Mark Photography Challenge, devised by Wakefield’s Make Your Mark campaign in partnership with Wakefield College and Wakefield Council, to give photography students the opportunity to hone their enterprise skills, gain experience and move towards their goal of self-employment.
Applying photography skills developed at Wakefield College the students were asked to capture the community spirit at the Mela and to choose their favourite images to exhibit in a public exhibition.
Councillor Clive Hudson comments: "The Wakefield Mela was a fantastic day for the local community and the Mela exhibition reflects that, it features local people, as well as dancers and musicians coming together in celebration. Dean and Alan have captured the charm of the event and in doing so have really made their mark. The exhibition is a feel good must see for everyone. It is something that the Wakefield district should feel proud of and I urge everyone to come and see it."
Dean Hammonds said: "This has been a fantastic opportunity for us to show everyone what we can do. It has also been really valuable to get involved in the behind the scenes stuff, and to find out what really goes into planning an exhibition. I hope this will lead to other things, it’s a great platform to launch a career in photography."
Visitors to the exhibition can vote for the image that they would most like to see used by the Council to officially represent the Mela 2007.
Youngsters make their mark at enterprise fair
28 June 2007
A spirit of enterprise was in the air when students from schools and colleges across the district came together at Oakfield Park School, Ackworth to take part in a three day Wakefield Special Enterprise and Work Related Learning Fair designed to encourage enterprise activity.
The fair was supported by sponsors, donors and community organisations including the Make Your Mark campaign which is working across the Wakefield district to inspire young people in their teens and twenties to turn their ideas into reality – whether by starting up a business or social enterprise, or by making an idea happen at work or school.
Students from Oakfield Park, which is a special school with 115 students who have severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties, joined up with other youngsters aged between 13-19 to create a diverse range of career based stalls and activities for the fair.
The students came up with innovative money raising activities including a remote controlled model car course (car maintenance), ‘coin rolling’ games (banking) and an army style assault course. Trained nursery nurses also teamed up with students to run a childcare based stall.
Other enterprising activities included selling items such as ‘decorate your own’ muffins (catering), horticultural plants, handmade badges, key rings, lights and a ‘try a beauty therapy’ stall.
The students’ efforts were showcased on the last day of the event to Governors and parents, with certificates awarded to the most profitable stall in recognition of their efforts.
Visiting the event, Jane Walton, leader of Wakefield’s Make Your Mark, said: “It is fantastic to see how much the young people have achieved and how much fun they have had in the process. The fair has been a great example of how young people can come together to make their ideas happen.”
Oakfield Park School, senior teacher, Julie Mott said: “Enterprise activity provides students with a valuable opportunity to get involved, work co-operatively, share ideas and learn new skills. Other plus points are that the youngsters get a great sense of achievement from their efforts and make new friends.”
She added: “We are very grateful to everyone who has supported the fair and helped us to make it such a successful event.”
Leading company 'oils' the wheels of local enterprise
27 June 2007
Welcome Car Finance (a consumer division of Cattles plc - a leading UK based financial services company that has its head office at Birstall near Batley) has made its mark with the local community by donating a vehicle which will be used by students studying ‘Vehicle Maintenance’ at Wak
efield College.
Cattles, which has offices across the UK and more than 4,000 employees, operates in three divisions - Welcome Financial Services (including Shopacheck), the Lewis Group and Cattles Invoice Finance.
The team of first year students were presented with the Rover 200 car as a result of winning a challenge organised by Wakefield’s Make Your Mark campaign in partnership with Welcome Car Finance and Wakefield College.
Make Your Mark is a national campaign to inspire young people to turn their ideas into reality by starting up a business, social enterprise or making an idea happen at work or in the community. The campaign is being rolled out intensively across the Wakefield district to help fuel a culture of enterprise among young people in their teens and twenties.
The students were tasked with coming up with an innovative and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fuel to transport the car from the Castleford branch of Welcome Car Finance back to the College’s Whitwood Campus.
Three teams of students took part in the challenge which focused on developing their enterprise skills, including communication; generating ideas; teamwork; planning and presentation; competitive spirit and innovation, culminating in each team producing a PowerPoint presentation, with the winning idea of ‘vegetable oil’ selected by a panel of judges.
Paul Hibbert, Welcome Car Finance operations manager, explained: “We were delighted to support the Make Your Mark campaign. As a business we are committed to supporting our local community and recognise the importance of encouraging young people, who will be the workforce of tomorrow, to hone their entrepreneurial skills.”
On behalf of Wakefield College, Mark Butcher, said: “We are very grateful to Welcome Car Finance for generously donating the car which we will use for training purposes including ‘strip downs and rebuilds’.”
Local women recognised as inspirational role models
18 May 2007
Ten local women, who between them are making waves in world of business, politics, music, art and the media, have been appointed as official ambassadors for the Girls! Make Your Mark campaign at a special ‘ambassadorial’ event held at the Chasley Hotel in Wakefield.
Girls! Make Your Mark is a national campaign to encourage more young women to turn their ideas into reality. The campaign aims to recruit 100 ambassadors across the UK who will act as role models to inspire the next generation and help to boost rates of entrepreneurship.
In Wakefield, the campaign has the backing of Mary Creagh MP, who says: “I’m thrilled that Make Your Mark is shining the spotlight on young women in Wakefield because there is so much talent here - but local women are still much less likely to set up in business than women in other parts of the country. I believe part of the reason has to do with the lack of realistic role models. Role models can help to inspire confidence and light that initial spark of self-belief that that leads more young people to think ‘yes I can do that too’.”
Ambassadors Kate Bagnall and Louise Hopkins are co-directors of Wakefield-based agency Bagnall Hopkins Recruitment, which they opened in October 2006. Louise says: “We were really excited about starting a business in Wakefield and so far things are going really well for us. But I don’t think either of us would have been brave enough to take the plunge alone - I guess it’s a confidence thing and that’s what holds a lot of women back. But now we’ve done it neither of us would ever go back. If we can use our experiences to help inspire other young people to realise their ambitions that’s great.”
Jane Walton, head of the local Make Your Mark campaign says: “The idea is that the women appointed today will be the first of many to join the campaign. We’re looking district-wide for women who are making their mark – we want them to come forward and help us run a really inspirational campaign that will succeed in raising aspirations and give young women and girls the confidence and support they need to start a business, or a band, or a community group – whatever it is that they aspire to achieve.”
National skills champion backs Wakefield enterprise campaign
19 March 2007
Sir Digby Jones, UK Skills Envoy and former CBI director general, has joined Ed Balls MP and leading local figures in publicly pledging support for the Make Your Mark in Wakefield campaign.
Sir Digby said: "It is so important that employers, schools and colleges work together to improve the skills of young people and especially develop a "can-do" attitude and a work ethic that enables them to succeed in an enterprising economy. I am delighted to support Make Your Mark in Wakefield in this marvellous initiative.”
The launch event at Nostell Priory signaled a call to action for local businesses and organisations to promise their support and commit to fuelling an enterprise culture in Wakefield.
Ed Balls MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury and MP for Normanton, has been instrumental in catalysing support in the Wakefield area for the campaign. He commented: “It’s fantastic news that our area has been chosen to be one of four enterprise hubs across the UK. I want every young person in our district to be able to fulfil their dreams - whether they want to get an apprenticeship, go to university, write a film script, start a rock band or run their own business."
Read further details about the event or find out more about local people who have pledged their support for the campaign.
Contact us
For further information on any of these news stories, please contact Naiomi Sullivan at Make Your Mark by telephoning 01924 789682 or emailing naiomi@enterpriseinsight.co.uk