STUDENTS from schools across Worcestershire, including St Augustine's in Redditch, have been putting their business skills into practise with a challenge from the SUBWAY brand - to create a marketing plan and design for a brand new 6-inch Sub.

Teams have taken on the challenge and have spent the last few weeks working on their entries around the theme #MySubMyWay. They will now be going head-to-head with ideas from other schools and colleges from across the region to make the shortlist. The winning team will see their Sub launched in more than 280 stores across the central region and bag themselves Apple iPads.

Now in its second year, the Design a Sub challenge tasks students to come up with a marketing campaign and business plan for the launch of a new Sub. To create a successful campaign, students were asked to consider their target market, competitor offerings, pricing and promotional plans, encouraging research, collaboration and team building skills.

The project ties in closely with the national curriculum and provides students with a real-life opportunity to put their business skills to the test. Students now face a nerve-wracking wait to find out if their design has been shortlisted and whether they will get the chance to present their ideas in a Dragon’s Den style pitch to a panel of experts from SUBWAY next month.

Tim Grogan, head of business and ICT at St Augustine’s said: “The students are very excited about the competition. It’s great to have a real-life business challenge for them to work through and in an industry that is relevant to them and that they can understand and relate to. The students are brimming with ideas.”

SUBWAY brand entrepreneur Gurpal Showker said: “We’re delighted to see so many teams from across the region enter the competition this year. The standard of entries looks exceedingly high and it’s going to be a difficult job short listing our six finalists. We’re looking forward to finding out more from the students at the finalists' judging day."

“As an entrepreneurial organisation, the SUBWAY brand wanted to give local students a platform to put their own skills to the test and celebrate their fresh thinking – we hope they have enjoyed sinking their teeth into the challenge.”