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Last Friday I spent the day hosting the semi-final for our schools competition for GEC at Professional Liverpool member Rathbone Brothers http://www.rathbones.com/.

Primary Schools in the final for GEC

In the morning 11 excited Primary schools faced 2 teams of judges from Social Enterprise Network Merseyside, Professional Liverpool, Liverpool Vision, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Liverpool City Council's Education department, plus the Young Lord Mayor. The children were inspirational, ambitious and held no fear - genuine entrepreneurs! They rapped, they acted and all wowed the judges. Interestingly very few used any prompt notes and their presentations were worthy of big business. One of the children (from Rice Lane) cheekily asked judges and guests to purchase his school's visitor information magazine - he sold at least 10 on the day and made £50 for the school - he's only 7 years old! Judging was very difficult and in the end they had to choose the following 6 Primary school finalists rather than the intended 5:

* Anfield Infants
* Dovedale Juniors
* Hunts Cross Primary School
* Rice Lane Infant and Nursery School
* Sacred Heart Primary School
* King David Primary

Thanks must go to Steve Rotheram MP, Luciana Berger MP, Max Steinberg and Cllr Jane Corbett for helping me hand out the school's certificates. Thanks also to Cllr Ian Francis, Adele Dowling & Vi Bebb for attending and supporting the schools.

Secondary Schools in the final for GEC

In the afternoon 11 Secondary Schools arrived to face a bank of 6 judges and presented X Factor style in front of over 100 people - including their competition! Again, judging was very difficult and the judges (Jo McGrath from SEN, Stephen Drury from Liverpool City Council, Jim Gill from Professional Liverpool, Val McGuiggan representing the Chamber of Commerce, Paul Chapman representing Liverpool Vision and Kate McCormick the Young Lord Mayor) found it a more difficult task than expected. All 11 had excellent ideas and marking was very close. However, in the end only the following 5 could go through to the final that takes place during Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March (http://www.gec2012.com<http://www.gec2012.com/>):

* SFX
* Cardinal Heanan
* The Alsop
* Archbishop Blanch
* Parklands

Thanks must also go to Cllr John Prince, Cllr Hayley Todd and Max Steinberg for helping me hand out the Secondary school's certificates.

Each of the schools that went through to the final will receive a payment of £500 and those that didn't go through on the day will get £100 to continue with their entrepreneurial project. The final takes place on 12th March 2012 (hopefully at the Epstein Theatre) during GEC and the winners will be announced on 13th March in front of 3000 delegates on the day Richard Branson speaks.