HUNDREDS of young students across the Cotswolds and Swindon are being invited to take part in a competition with cash prizes to celebrate their talent.

Four self-employed business owners have raised thousands of pounds in sponsorship to launch the contest aimed at young people who should have been taking their GCSEs, A Levels or equivalent examinations in 2021.

At the beginning of the first lockdown in March last year, the team of philanthropic professionals Nigel Chute (Chute Design); Allison Murray (Allison Murray Design); Chris Roberts (Chris Roberts MBE PR) and Fiona Scott (Scott Media) founded The Cotswold Challenge to provide support and an educational initiative to 15-19 years old students who were going to miss out on their GCSE and A-Level exams.

With education in schools and colleges being disrupted for the second year running, The Cotswold Challenge team are launching the competition again, giving young people the chance to win a ‘real world’ prize judged by people who are already successful in their profession.

And, new for this year, students from across Swindon as well as the Cotswolds will be invited to take part.

The team wish to give as many students as possible the opportunity to enter this innovative initiative and believe that this year’s students in Years 11, 12 and 13, who have been penned ‘the lost or Covid generation’, need to be able to showcase their talent and be rewarded for what has been, without doubt, a very tough time for them all.

There will be three categories to enter: art & design; creative writing and innovation & entrepreneurial thinking.

The prizes in each category are £500 and a professional mini-photo shoot for first place, £300 for second, £150 for third, £50 for fourth plus £25 book tokens for four students in each category who are highly commended.

This year, The Cotswold Challenge team is also offering a Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Talent chosen by the team and given to one person in each category.

Chris Roberts, who runs her media and PR business Chris Roberts MBE PR, has lived in the Cotswolds for over 40 years.

She said: “We had an incredible response to the competition last year with over 500 entries from students; 18 generous sponsors; 20 illustrious and expert judges and involvement from 42 schools and colleges across the Cotswolds.

“We feel it is the right thing to do to run the same competition again this year and open it up to a wider area by including students from Swindon schools and colleges.”

The Cotswold Challenge 2021 will be launched on Tuesday, June 1.

The final closing date will be Tuesday, July 6, and judging will take place in mid July.

To find out more, please visit: www.thecotswoldchallenge.com.