Pop-up book wows judges
A new app designed by Staffordshire students which could be part of the next generation of pop-up books has won a regional Young Enterprise competition.
Budding entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to industry experts and heard from the 2016 winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice at the final of the West Midlands Young Enterprise scheme hosted by Wolverhampton University.
The contest encourages young people to develop their business and social skills by setting up their own companies.
Six teams from across the region reached the final including Walsall Academy and King Edward VI High School in Stafford.
The overall winning team was Orbit Interactive from King Edward VI High School, who will represent the West Midlands at the national finals next month(JULY). The judges said the team of three students produced an innovative educational, digitally interactive, book and app.
The book follows Columbii, an alien from a distant planet, on his first adventure around seven countries on Earth. For each new country that he visits, children use the free app to scan the page which causes the graphics to ‘pop-out’ of the book through the device's screen.
The book's graphics are also interactive, so that by tapping an image of Big Ben, for example, readers would be able to hear it chime.It was described as potentially the next generation of pop-up books.
The guest speaker at the event Alana Spencer, the 2016 winner of the BBC's The Apprentice, shared her experience of taking an idea and setting up a new business, Ridiculously Rich by Alana, with Lord Sugar.
The judging panel included representatives from a range of organisations including Caterpillar, the NEC Group, AF Blakemore, and the University of Wolverhampton.
Stephen Grady, associate dean at the university's faculty of social sciences, said: "It was a delight to be involved in judging the work of the participant student companies, standards were very high and the students demonstrated an impressive array of entrepreneurial skills throughout the process.
"The University of Wolverhampton Business School is delighted to support the Young Enterprise Scheme since it encourages young people to explore their business acumen, creativity and innovation, the very qualities we seek to develop in our own graduates."
