On 31 March 2008, A student-run company is set to make waves on the international fashion circuit by jetting of to Milan, the Italian capital of style. Inspirity, an events-management agency led by ten teenagers from Bradford District, is heading to the city of fashion in preparation for its very own high-profile fashion show due to take place next month at the University of Bradford.

This once-in-a-lifetime trip is the highlight of a groundbreaking initiative, open to student across Bradford, run by business-education charity Young Enterprise and supported by the University of Bradford and Bradford Council's Kickstart programme, which encourages young people to consider starting a business in the District once they leave school or further education.

To win a place on the trip, the enterprising youngsters were each required to write a 1000 word essay outlining what they would expect to gain from the experience. Having impressed the judges, the ten deserving winners aged 14 and 15, from 7 different local secondary schools then formed events management company Inspirity through Young Enterprise’s Company Programme and embarked on an exciting learning experience to plan and execute a professional standard fashion show – which even the Italians would be proud of!

As part of the event-planning process, Inspirity were guests at London Fashion Week and also attended the Pure exhibition at London Olympia, where they met a range of industry professionals. Plus they have visited the prestigious London College of Fashion and The Fashion Retail Academy. A behind-the-scenes tour of John Lewis provided the youngsters with an insight into the running of the high-street department store.

Whilst in Italy the students will be exploring the famous fashion houses of Milan, as well as attending workshops in branding and leadership. The young entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to visit likeminded teenagers in local schools and colleges to see how business-education is taught in Italy by Junior Achievement – the parent organisation of Young Enterprise.

Upon their return to the UK, the students will feed their learning into final plans for the own fashion show, which is due to take place on 17th April at the University of Bradford. Inspirity’s overall journey, which has been recorded online through photo galleries, articles, video diaries and blogs (http://bradfordinspirity.blogspot.com/), will then be documented as an exhibition running over the course of a month at the University’s Gallery II.

Samiya Mehmood, HR Director of the company, “Since I’ve joined Inspirity, I’ve got to know so many people from different schools – we’ve developed such a strong bond and work really well together as a company. We can’t wait to go to Milan!”.

In the picture taken in The London Eye during their recent visit to London, left to right, are:

Safeer Abbas Shah from Belle Vue Boys
Heraa Noushahi from Nab Wood School
Rakhshindah Shah from Belle Vue Girls
Aksaa Mahmood from Challenge College
Samiya Mehmood from Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College
Sameerah Noreen from Nab Wood School
Adeeb Hussain from Challenge College
Katherine Grasham from Greenhead High
Mazhar Hussain from Grange Technology College
Katie Rawnsley from Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College