Budding entrepreneurs from Hartlepool narrowly missed out on the national finals of an enterprise challenge held for young people in late 2009.

Three teams from the town successfully reached the regional finals of the Make Your Mark Challenge, the UK's largest enterprise competition for 14-19 year olds, one of the highlights of the annual Global Enterprise Week.

Students from Hartlepool College of Further Education, Catcote School and the English Martyrs School & Sixth Form College made it through from 70,000 entrants to the last 1,200 before losing out to strong competition from across the region. The eventual winners of the North East final were teams from Staindrop Business & Enterprise College in Darlington and Northumberland Church of England Academy in Ashington, who went on to the national finals in London on 10th December.

The competition began on the first day of Global Enterprise Week 2009, on 16th November, where teams were asked to develop an original and profitable business idea that could make a positive impact on the environment in their local area. The competition was launched by Countdown presenter Rachel Riley, who asked students to develop new and innovative business ideas to the brief "Let local inspiration lead you to a 'cool' creation".

The team from Hartlepool College of Further Education came up with the idea of providing hire bikes for people to cycle to The Tall Ships Races, with Catcote School producing a jigsaw for young people to promote the Tall Ships event. The English Martyrs School & Sixth Form College proposed a re-useable Christmas cracker, with consumers providing their own materials to go inside.

The shortlisted students were required to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges at the Nissan factory in Sunderland on 26th November, who were impressed with the creativity and business potential of their ideas.

Rachel Riley said: "The Make Your Mark Challenge is a great way to get young people interested and excited in business and becoming entrepreneurs. It is vital to inspire and develop the skill set of these future entrepreneurs as they will help to drive our economy in years to come. This year we urged all entrants to consider the environmental impact of their entries and we were not disappointed."

For information on the events and successes of Global Enterprise Week 2009, visit www.gew.org.uk.