Young entrepreneurs visit Borough Market to refine business idea

The group of 15 and 16-year-olds met Borough Market trader Ben Leask from The Rabot Estate who explained the challenges of running a business and what it's like to work at Borough Market.

The group had been developing a business for a tool that would help to break down preconceptions about young people today by devising a board game for elderly people suffering from memory loss and Alzheimers.

The group's idea was to bring the game to care homes and residences and play it with the elderly to establish a connection between the generations.

The team were put through their paces by a panel made up of the market's managing director Keith Davis, Ben Leask from The Rabot Estate and some of the Borough Market team.

The panel also helped the young people to identify the unique selling points of their product and gave advice on branding and discussed how to get other young people involved.

The group will now take the advice they picked up and continue to refine their idea, using their experience in the market to sharpen their business skills as they work towards completing The Challenge later in the month.

"Borough Market was delighted to welcome such talented young people from The Challenge to the market for the day," said Keith Davis.

"The market is home to over 100 traders who are a source of artisan skills and specialist expertise and are only too happy to share their knowledge and passion for trading."

Course mentor Sheromie Brewster said: "The group really enjoyed the visit to Borough Market and it really helped them with pitching their campaign idea to the Dragons Panel. We would like to thank you all for your support."

The Challenge Network, based at the Oasis Centre in Waterloo, provided the inspiration for the Government's National Citizen Service which was launched by David Cameron and Michael Caine during a pre-election visit to SE1 in 2010.