Making their move! ‘Pieces of Orkney’ Young Enterprise Company of the Year heading to Hampden final

Let’s hope it’s “checkmate” for our local Young Enterprise Company of the Year - Stromness Academy’s Pieces of Orkney – in the national finals at Hampden Park in Glasgow next week. 

The “magnificent seven” Academy team - made up of Emily Fisher, Scott Shearer, Gabrielle Shoesmith, Finn Aberdein, Brodie Leroux, Raven Lea and Fergus Pearson – designed a distinctly Orcadian-themed chess board with inspiration for the individual pieces coming from Kitchener’s Memorial, the Scar Dragon plaque, Standing Stones, St Magnus Cathedral, a selkie and St Magnus Erlendsson. 

The box includes a crafted wooden board, Orcadian chess pieces, background information on the landmarks they represent and shredded up The Orcadian newspaper. The pieces are made from resin in pre-designed moulds. Check out their Facebook page @PiecesofOrkney. 

They will be going head-to-head with 13 other regional Young Enterprise finalists from across Scotland when they meet at Hampden on Wednesday 29 May. 

The new look two-day Festival of Youth Enterprise will see young people celebrate their achievements in a range of enterprise programmes on offer. 

Young Enterprise has partnered with Sodexo Live on day one to highlight some of the waste generated on match days and at events within the Hampden Park stadium and will be challenging young people to create solutions to these issues. 

The teams will be competing for a range of accolades, culminating with the Scottish Company of the Year award. 

Voting is now open for the Peroosh People’s Choice Award at the Young Enterprise Scotland finals - https://yes.org.uk/foye24 - the team would really appreciate your support - voting closes next Tuesday 28 May. 

The Stromness team said: “We want to thank everyone who has supported us in these past months, thank you to our business advisors, thank you to our customers, thank you to everyone who visited our trade stand and presentation - and a big thanks to our janitor Mark as our biggest inspiration!  We will see you in Glasgow!” 

Congratulations must also be extended to Ebb & Flow Orkney from Kirkwall Grammer School who picked up four awards during the local final for their coasters inspired by the Orkney coastline and beaches. The UHI Orkney team - Buddo Bandanas – were also recognised as 'Team of the Year' as part of the national Team Programme and received the Best Trade Stand as part of the Young Enterprise awards. 

Matthew Reid, Chair of Young Enterprise Orkney, said: “Our local finals this year was a very close call for the judges where the competition was between two extremely strong teams. No matter which team Orkney were to send to Hampden, we knew we were going to have a high-quality team representing us. Pieces of Orkney have shown that they deserve to be at this stage of the competition, and I am looking forward to seeing how they have taken on feedback from judges at the local competition to showcase themselves and their product at Hampden. 

“Having an Orkney presence at this national event again is great to see and I wish Pieces of Orkney well at the national finals.” 

 
Chair of the Council’s Education, Leisure and Housing Committee, Councillor Gwenda Shearer, said: “The business acumen of these Young Enterprise companies is simply outstanding – from the idea gathering, to design, production, costings, advertising – their attention to detail really is quite incredible. 

“On behalf of the Council, I wish Pieces of Orkney every onward success at the national finals in Glasgow. I am sure folk in Orkney will get behind them in terms of the people’s choice award.”

Pictured are Finn, Gabrielle, Emily and Scott from Pieces of Orkney collecting the Company of The Year shield from judge Louise McQuaid, Programme Executive at Young Enterprise Scotland.