Fourteen year old Amadou Dibba, son of Alimatou Bajo of Gunjur residing in Leeds, UK is among four students of the Yorkshire based Cockburn School who won The Big Deal Competition organised by the University of York. “The Big Deal is a 14-week enterprise competition for students in Years 9 or 10 who have an interest in enterprise. The winning team are taken on a business trip of a lifetime to New York City!
Students also complete an online curriculum with mentoring support from business professionals who work across a range of sectors.”

Students from Cockburn School including Amadou participated in the annual Big Deal Event. “The Event requires students to produce a business plan, prototype and ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch which is then presented to a team of senior business people from a range of national businesses.” Cockburn School had three teams of students participating in the event with each team comprising of four students. Each team worked with an external mentor from Barclays Bank who provided support and guidance throughout the event. Students were also invited to spend a day at Barclays Headquarters in Canary Wharf, London, to perfect their business plans and pitches. They were also given a number of talks from senior Barclays executives who provided support and inspiration to the students. The final of The Big Deal took place on June 21 2018 at York University. The Cockburn teams gave excellent pitches of their ideas to the dragons who were impressed with their enthusiasm and creativity. Team Voltz from Cockburn were crowned overall winners of the event with their innovative mobile phone case which can plug straight into the mains for charging.

A total of 40 schools across Yorkshire participated and 240 students took part in the competition. Amadou, 14 and his team emerged victorious and ended the process with a trip to New York. In New York, the four students presented their pitch to executives from an IT consultancy firm with a turnover of nearly $4bn! The young business entrepreneurs had an amazing time in New York according to the school’s Facebook page.

The Big Deal Competition winners for 2018 in New York where they pitched to executives from an IT consultancy firm
Congratulation to Amadou and his team for winning The Big Deal Competition for 2018.