Welcome to the 2011/12 Future Business Magnates competition.

Ensuring an enterprising future for our young people is of critical importance to the economy of County Durham.  The Future Business Magnates competition plays an important role in helping to achieve this goal.  Those that have experienced the competition in previous years know that it brings excitement, exhilaration and competitiveness to everyone involved and helps develop a real 'spirit of enterprise'.

This year we are pleased to have received a contribution from the County Durham Economic Partnership's Performance Reward Grant, to incorporate a theme of 'cultural and creative industries' into the competition.  As part of its enterprise strategy, the Economic Partnership is looking at ways to support emerging cultural and creative businesses in the County.  Many of the business ideas that the FBM teams have come up with in previous years have been creative businesses and teams demonstrate their creative skills throughout the competition, so we believe the theme will fit very well.

Durham County Council is delighted to work with our private and public sector partners to continue the success of the Future Business Magnates competition.  It is particularly encouraging to see the number of schools involved in the competition growing year on year, with 24 of the County's secondary schools signed up to participate in the 2011-12 competition.

As Cabinet Members for Children & Young People's Services and Regeneration & Economic Development respectively, we believe that Future Business Magnates and its participants and supporters are an incredibly important resource for our areas of responsibility.  We would like to wish everyone great success for the 2011-12 competition.

With best wishes

Councillor Claire Vasey
Portfolio Holder, Children and Young People's Services

Councillor Neil Foster
Portfolio Holder, Regeneration and Economic Development