What would you do with £5?

The Fiver Challenge is back! It is an exciting enterprise challenge for pupils aged between 5 and 11. It is run by Young Enterprise with support from Virgin Money.

What is it?

Pupils have a month to set up a mini business and create a product or service they can sell or deliver at a profit and engage with their local community. They are each given £5 to do this. Pupils can work individually or in a group.

It is a great opportunity for pupils to develop their enterprise skills in a practical way, by getting to grips with business planning, marketing and selling, and exercising core financial literacy skills like money management and budgeting. It also helps to develop confidence, communication skills and problem solving.

At the end of the month, each team works out their finances and repays their £5 pledge plus a suggested legacy donation to help keep the challenge going in future years. Your pupils are then in full control of the leftover cash and can decide how to spend them. In the past, pupils have used their profits towards school trips, classroom resources and charity donations.

There is no cost for schools to participate in the challenge.

How do I get involved?

All you need to do is register online. If you sign up before 6th May 2016, you will have a chance to win £50 vouchers. Registration closes on 10th June 2016.

The challenge then starts on the 6th June and finishes on 1st July 2016. The deadline for submitting entries for the national challenge is 6th July 2016.

For the national competition, the following awards are up for grabs:

• Most inspiring individual 9-11 years
• Best overall group 5-8 years
• Best overall group 9-11 years
• Most profitable business idea 5-8 years
• Most profitable business idea 9-11 years
• Best community engagement 9-11 years

There will also be weekly competitions in June and July to help keep your pupils motivated and on track with their enterprises, including logo design competition and sales pitch competition. More information can be found on the Fiver Challenge website.