Spirax Sarco is helping young people to develop their business and entrepreneurial skills by supporting the Gloucestershire Young Enterprise programme, including sponsorship of the Trade Exhibition event, which takes place on 5 March at Cheltenham Town Hall.
Open to the public, the trade exhibition is part of the Young Enterprise company programme aimed at students aged 15-19. Over a year, students participating in the programme have set-up and run their own businesses, with an emphasis on core skills such as marketing, sales, finance and customer care.

The exhibition will mark the culmination of their efforts, with each business being required to exhibit their work at the event, and participate in a 'Dragons' Den' style interview on their projects. Judges will score teams against various categories, with the winner entering the regional stage of the competition.

Roger Glassonbury, customer training manager at Spirax Sarco, said: 'We've been involved with the Gloucestershire Young Enterprise for many years now, but we were able to offer more support this year, thanks to a generous donation from the Spirax Sarco Charitable Trust.' Mr Glassonbury was himself the recipient of a Gold Award in 2012 for his outstanding contribution to Young Enterprise.

'Developing vocational business skills in students can make a major contribution to helping bridge the gap between education and employment. The Young Enterprise programme gives young people direct experience in learning the fundamental skills needed to create and run a successful business, which is something we're very keen to support,' added Mr Glassonbury. 'At Spirax Sarco, we've invested heavily in our own training facilities and created apprenticeship and graduate programmes to support and develop the UK's future engineers.'

As well as being the lead sponsors for the event, Spirax Sarco staff have also been assisting the students throughout the process and will help judge and present awards to the successful teams.