A team of young students from Gibraltar came second place at the Young Enterprise UK national finals held in London.

Judges at the finals held in Kensington Town Hall on Monday night were impressed with Bootz produced by Team Elementz – a water resistant overshoe designed to help keep your shoes and feet dry in wet weather and can also be easily stored away.

The company, comprised of a total of eight Bayside Comprehensive School students, also earned the Financial Management Business Award and Managing Director Stefan Valarino secured the Founders Leadership Award.

Stefan together with Jake Collado (Deputy Managing Director), Julian Lopez (Finance Director), Peter Sardeña (IT Director), Alain Pons (Operations Director), Kyle McCreesh (Sales Director), Francis Picardo (Marketing Director) and Aidan Borg (Deputy Sales Director) have worked together with  Link Teachers Clayton Busto and Jonhenry Mauro, as well as the Bayside Coordinator Analise Benitez and their Business Advisor Susan Beresford.  

Carlos Garcia, Chairman of the Young Enterprise Scheme in Gibraltar, said: “Firstly I’d like to congratulate Team Elementz on their achievement of second place in the UK finals.

“The team worked together to produce an excellent product which certainly caught the attention of judges here and in London.

“On behalf of everyone involved in the Young Enterprise Scheme in Gibraltar, I’d like to say we are all very proud of Team Elementz.”

In Gibraltar, the Young Enterprise initiative is supported by the Gaggero Foundation and a network of members from the Education and Business Establishments within Gibraltar.

Young Enterprise is the United Kingdom’s largest business and enterprise education charity, which helps around 225,000 young people learn about business and the world of work in the classroom under the guidance of a network of  5,000 volunteers from 3,500 companies.  Young Enterprise’s aim is to “inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise”.  Its guiding principle is to do this through “learning by doing”.