Pictured above: (left to right on back row) Julia Phillips, development manager at Young Enterprise, Charlotte Wright, development manager at Young Enterprise, Tim Taylor, Personal Tax Consultant at Smith Cooper, Julie Jones, chair person of the local Young Enterprise Area Board and students from St John Houghton School in Kirk Hallam.

A local firm of chartered accountants has teamed up with the UK's leading business and enterprise education charity to help local youngsters develop their business acumen.

Smith Cooper, which is based on Haydn Road in Nottingham, is supporting Young Enterprise's year in enterprise scheme, which gives school children in years 10 - 13 the chance to run a company for a year.  

Smith Cooper first heard about the charity through its personal tax consultant, Tim Taylor. Tim has been on the board for Young Enterprise for more than five years. Prior to this he was a graduate of the scheme himself and has acted as a business advisor throughout the local area.

Tim will be on hand to provide students with on-going support and guidance on their enterprises at a series of events throughout the year, which will offer business information and resources to help them with their business venture. 

Smith Cooper kick started the year-long programme last week by providing the venue for the first event, which gave students an introduction to the scheme. 

Young Enterprise aims to help young people understand the world of business and prepare for their working lives through the principal of learning by doing. 

All businesses formed by students in South East Derbyshire during the programme will be entered into a competition to reach the area finals. The next stages are to fight their way to the county, regional, national and hopefully the European finals of the Young Enterprise competition.

Commenting on their support, Tim said: "Myself and my colleagues at Smith Cooper are delighted to be involved with such a fantastic organisation and would urge other local businesses to get involved. The Young Enterprise scheme allows young people to build confidence, develop team work skills and to get a taste of the business world before leaving school.

"Working with Young Enterprise has enabled us to work alongside Young Enterprise to introduce students to business by challenging them to form and run a company for one year, whilst providing support through the learning process."

"Due to the current economic climate, students will face a tough challenge this year and I am looking forward to seeing the different methods of keeping a company afloat," added Tim.

Smith Cooper offers general compliance services, dedicated corporate finance, specialist tax and corporate recovery and insolvency teams, as well as separate financial solutions, IT and HR divisions.

These services are available from the firm's network of 10 offices across the East and West Midlands.