Personalised clocks, kitchen utensils made from recycled plastics and a cookbook app for children with food intolerances are just a few of the products which have been designed and sold by some of the best young business brains in the region.

Those brain will be battling it out on Thursday in the Newport & Monmouthshire final of the Young Enterprise Wales Team and Company competitions.

Students from seven schools from the region have set up their own registered companies, created business plans, raised funds, created or sourced product ranges, devised marketing plans and prepared a final company report.

And judges, including South Wales Argus business editor Jo Barnes, will be on hand on Thursday to decide which team and company should be crowned regional winner.

The shortlisted companies are: MESy Makers, Maes Ebbw School, Ebbw Vale, which has sold handmade novelty items including cat toys and plants; Solenoid Enterprise, Chepstow School, which has designed and sold earphones with a 'spring wire'; Timber, Haberdasher’s Monmouth School for Girls selling handmade notebooks and keyrings; The Crafty Clock Company, The John Frost School, Newport, which has designed and sold personalised clocks; Polymade, Monmouth Boys’ School, which has designed and sold kitchen utensils made from recycled plastic; and A Sprinkle of Love, Rougemont School, Newport, which has developed a cookbook app for children with food intolerances

During the final in the Newport City campus of the University of South Wales, the companies will set up their own exhibition stands, make a presentation to the independent judging panel and answer questions about their business.

Andrew Cotton, Young Enterprise manager, said: “I have been keeping in contact with all the companies competing throughout the year. We have some great companies started up by students in the region this year and the judge’s I am sure, will be very impressed with the quality of the finalists.”

More than 14,500 young people aged 15 to 19 from across the UK have set up and run a real business over the academic year as part of company programme.

Kath Lewis, chairman of the Newport & Monmouthshire Young Enterprise Board is looking forward to the final on Thursday and keen to encourage more schools to take part next year.

She said: “The final will highlight how our company and team programmes can inspire young people to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow by helping them to learn and apply practical business skills whilst they are still at school that they can take with them during their career. Thursday is the pinnacle of many months of hard work from the students, representing their creativity, resilience and business acumen. They won’t learn these skills in the classroom. There is supporting research that shows that 95 per cent of company alumni go on to education, employment or training – seven per cent higher than the national average of 88 per cent.”