We are delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural King’s Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition, established to encourage UK Sixth Form students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise.
This year’s top prize has been awarded to Khaleel Miah from Sir John Lawes School, and the two runners up were Leona Liu from Hills Road Sixth Form College and Harry Ridge from Coleg Cambria. The three winners attended a prize-giving ceremony at King’s and received a cash prize to be split between the student and their school.
Students could choose between one of the three possible choice of essays questions, exploring the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that business people face. The winning entry in particular responded to the question ‘Why is learning from failure sometimes more effective than learning from success?’.
The winner and the two runners up were selected by our expert panel of judges: Mervyn King (KC 1968), Deborah Meaden, and King’s Provost Gillian Tett.
Following the prize-giving ceremony, Rhys Williams - King’s PhD student and E-Lab Senior Associate who organised the competition this year – commented:
We received hundreds of applications across the three question topics, all of which were fantastic making the job of choosing a winner very difficult! Fortunately, with the kind help of our judges Gillian Tett, Deborah Meaden and Lord Mervyn King, we were able to select these three fantastic essays as the winning entries.
The Entrepreneurship Lab Essay Competition will be back in 2024 for the second year, and more information will be available next summer. All students studying at sixth form (or equivalent) level from all backgrounds and regardless of subjects studied are welcome to enter the competition.
