Barry Comprehensive School

A Vale of Glamorgan schoolboy has scooped a top prize in an online business game which tests young people’s business skills by giving them the opportunity to run their very own rugby shop.

Barry Comprehensive pupil Michael Prosser, aged 18, beat hundreds of competing youngsters from across Wales at Venture Game Wales, a web-based game launched by Microsoft and leading business support agency Venture Wales to teach young people business and enterprise skills. The A Level Business Studies student was presented with a prize of a Microsoft Xbox 360 by Stuart Ball, Programme Manager for Microsoft’s Partners in Learning in Wales and Managing Director of Venture Wales Phil Cooper.

All four Welsh rugby regions have lent their support to the game, which is available free of charge to every secondary school in Wales. In the game pupils experience everything that is involved in running a retail business including the hiring and firing of staff, stock control and budget forecasting.

Pupils can choose their favourite team upon which to base their shop, can see how well they are doing against other pupils and schools and chart their progress on a scoreboard. Michael’s store, which was based on the Cardiff Blues rugby team, is the best performing store in the south Wales region out of over 2000 created since the game was launched in October 2007.

Phil Cooper, Managing Director of Venture Wales said: “ The future of the Welsh economy depends on the development of entrepreneurial skills within our schoolchildren today. It is therefore important to give young people the experience they need to test and develop those skills. Venture Wales is proud to be associated with this exciting educational game which is designed to help young people acquire the mindset of an entrepreneur from an early age.”

Michael said: “I hope to go on to study business at University so while this came as a shock I’m pleased I’ve done so well. It’s not often young people get the opportunity to learn business skills and put them into practice so to be able to do that in a virtual environment has been really useful to me.”

Stephen Rees, Michael’s Business Studies and ICT tutor said: “We are really proud of Michael’s success. Our pupils are very competitive about how they’re doing on the leaderboard and as business is all about competition and upping your game it teaches very useful attributes.”

Stuart Ball, Programme Manager for Microsoft’s Partners in Learning in Wales said: “Michael has done really well to beat many hundreds of other young people across Wales playing the game, and the gauntlet has now been thrown down for other young people to improve on his score!”

Details of the game can be found at www.venturegamewales.co.uk. The game will be offered to every secondary school in Wales for free until June 2008. Venture Wales is hoping to source sponsorship so that they can maintain the game’s free status and offer further prizes.

Read the coverage of Michael's win on the Venture Wales website here.

Photos:

1. David Swallow. Headteacher, Stephen Rees, IT Teacher, Stuart Ball, Programme Manager for Microsoft’s Partners in Learning in Wales and Phil Cooper, Managing Director of Venture Wales, with winner Michael Prosser
2. Michael Prosser - X Box 360 Winner