Makyth Ventures Ignite

Winchester College’s annual inter-school pitching competition for secondary school students across the UK. Fostering entrepreneurial skills and mindsets amongst students, encouraging inter-school collaboration and raising the profile of entrepreneurial education across the sector.

Participating student teams take part in a series of workshops with experienced business professionals to help them build compelling business proposals, culminating in a live pitch competition for family, friends and of course, a panel of judges.

For ambitious, curious Year 9-11 students from across the UK.

If you’d like to learn more about MV Ignite, please get in touch at makythventures@wincoll.ac.uk

Student Benefits

  • Hands-on entrepreneurial experience

    Immersive programming from Winchester College’s Makyth Ventures team aimed at helping students build foundational entrepreneurial skills and mindsets.

  • Professional skill building

    Working with - and competing against - peers from leading secondary schools across the UK; students build collaboration, leadership, presentation and inter-personal skills.

  • Networking opportunities

    Students tackle a real-world entrepreneurial case challenge guided by experienced founders and practitioners across the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“It was amazing seeing so many students come together, challenging each other. You could see how they all had thought about how they got there and how to explain their solutions to someone else.”

— 2022 educator

“It was a great experience. We learned a lot, not just on the day, but the whole process towards it. I really advise coming back here and taking part in it again next year.”

— 2023 student

“The final was an energising and exciting day. I saw real drive and energy today, especially in their community engagement. It was great seeing students go above and beyond in finding their solution.”

— 2022 educator

MV Ignite 2024

This year’s MV Ignite event will be happening at the end of the calendar year.

We invite teams of ambitious and creative students from schools across the UK to take part. If you are interested in being a part of this exciting project, please get in touch below or by emailing makythventures@wincoll.ac.uk.

Tackling real-world problems.

See some examples below of the themes we select for each cohort, ensuring they are relevant to students’ futures.

2022: The Case Against Waste

we wanted to challenge this MV Ignite cohort to look around them. Where did they see wastefulness in their school? What exactly is being wasted? How can waste be repurposed to realise new opportunities?

At the beginning of your project, you were tasked with identifying a problem within your schools relating to waste.

As the projects showed, there was no shortage of creativity in identifying problems and coming up with solutions from making school uniforms in hemp to designing an app to map school community engagement with waste management.

2023: The Future of Food

Last year we partnered with FUEL10K, a leading innovative UK breakfast brand, exploring the future of food amongst macro trends like climate change, ageing populations, natural commodities, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The challenge? Pitching a successful new product for FUEL10K, but imagining you're in the year 2043. Students were challenged to think creatively, understand macro world trends and convince a panel of impressive 'Dragons' from the food industry.

How to get involved.

Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly!