The winners of an entrepreneurial competition will be crowned after a six month charity fundraising challenge.

Dragon’s Apprentice Challenge, now in its seventh year, offers Year 12 students from across the district the opportunity to work with a local business person to try and turn £100 into £1,000 for charity.

The participants of this year’s competition will be handing over their charity cheques to a local cause or community group at the final on March 21.

Students will head to the University of Herts where they will showcase their journey and donate their profits, before a winning team is crowned.

There are also a number of awards for individual teams, including ‘the most money earned’ and ‘the team demonstrating the closest co-operation with their beneficiary’.

The overall winners will visit the House of Commons with St Albans MP Anne Main.

Last year a team of four from Samuel Ryder Academy won after being mentored by Sinead Howland of Sinead Howland Career Coaching.

Daniel Brazier was part of the winning team and went on to get five university offers.

He said: “It’s been a year since the Dragon’s Apprentice Challenge and I have come on leaps and bounds. It has given me the passion and drive I need to pursue a career in the advertising and marketing world which I hope to study at Coventry University.

“If it wasn’t for the challenge, I wouldn’t have any direction as to what I wanted to do. That’s the great thing about participating- it changes you from someone not having a clue about business into a young business person.”

They donated their money to Hertfordshire Society for the Blind. Vicky Palumbo from the charity said: “This team of fantastic young people staged amazing events and put in a tremendous amount of effort to succeed.

“They engaged well with our service users and did our charity proud. In addition to this fab donation to our Sightlife group, we have also made important contacts and received publicly that we wouldn’t have managed without this group of lovely youngsters putting in their time and commitment.”

Anyone interested in participating in next year’s challenge as a Dragon mentor, school, or parent of Year 11s is welcome to come and view the ‘challenge showcase’ at the finals. To secure a ticket, email dragonsapprentice@cvsstalbans.org.uk