Click here to view the 2023 competition.

We are delighted to introduce the second edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students (in Year 11 and Year 12 in England and Wales; S4 or S5 in Scotland; Year 12 or 13 in Northern Ireland) to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. We are particularly keen to foster this entrepreneurial spirit among students who might not traditionally consider entering the world of business and further hope this competition encourages more young people, who might not think about it, to apply to Oxbridge and Higher Education.

The competition is organised and run by the Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) at King’s College, University of Cambridge. More details about the E-Lab can be found on our About page.

Students should choose between one of the three essays questions, below, exploring the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that business-people face. This essay should be written independently by the student but with input from a teacher or mentor. UK-based students from all backgrounds and regardless of subjects studied are welcome to enter the competition.

A winner, and two runners up, will be selected by our panel of E-Lab Judges. The winners will be invited to a prize-giving ceremony, to be held in King’s College, Cambridge, on 2nd October 2024. The winner will receive a £1,000 cash prize, with two runners-up prizes of £500.

Essay Questions and Format

Students are invited to select one of the three questions below, to write a 1,000 word essay:

Q1: Entrepreneurs that innovate can keep up with the latest trends and fight off competition to increase consumer demand for their products. However, innovation can be expensive and can also destroy revenues for a firm's existing products. Provide some examples of this and discuss, in more detail, the trade-offs firms and entrepreneurs face when deciding to innovate, and what happens if they fail to innovate.

Q2: Discuss the concept of social entrepreneurship and its role in addressing social and environmental issues. Analyse, in depth, a successful social enterprise and discuss how it balances the trade-off between profit-making with creating a positive impact.

Q3: Explore the rise of the gig economy and its implications for entrepreneurs. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of gig work for entrepreneurs and strategies for succeeding in this evolving economic landscape.

Students are requested to submit their writing in an essay style format. If footnotes are used, they will count towards the word limit. External references (e.g. facts and figures) should be sourced in a bibliography at the end of the article, which will not count towards the word limit. We know that not all students will be familiar with referencing, so you might find the following page, from the University, which links to a Guide to Harvard Referencing, helpful. Any other standard system of referencing style is also acceptable.

Essay Advice: your submission should be structured as a business-style essay, this might not necessarily coincide with the way you are taught to write essays for exams! Ensure the article is easy-to-read, is logical and well structured, and is free of spelling or grammatical errors. Make sure to read through your essay once it is finished, before submitting. Read the question you select carefully and answer it directly, don’t re-write the question or answer a different question of your choosing! Don’t forget - this is an essay competition on entrepreneurship - make sure your essay shows you understand what an entrepreneur is and does and show that you can think like an entrepreneur. Furthermore, and to clarify, this is not an economics essay. Whilst economic concepts might be relevant, we want to see a demonstration of business and entrepreneurial ideas rather than A-Level economics knowledge. Finally, don’t forget to include examples, where relevant (outside the box examples are welcome!), explain your arguments clearly, and don’t spend too long (if at all) defining concepts which would be understand by a general audience.

Eligibility

Any student studying at a school or college in the United Kingdom who are in the academic year 11 or 12, or equivalent (S4 or S5 in Scotland; Year 12 or 13 in Northern Ireland) is eligible to enter the competition. There are no requirements on subjects studied.

The submitted essay must be the student’s own work but the student is allowed to seek input from a teacher or mentor. Use of generative AI is forbidden (e.g. ChatGPT etc). Plagariasm and AI-usage checks will be carried out and any violating essay will be disqualified. More details on the University’s plagiarism rules can be found here.

Competition entries will need to be approved by a teacher: students are required to obtain permission from a teacher (of any subject) to sponsor their application and provide an official (school) email address which they can be contacted upon to confirm the eligibility of the student (by 19th July). Students can only submit one essay each.

Timeline

15th April 2024 - Competition Opens

9PM 12th July 2024 - Deadline for submission of essays (we are unable to consider essays submitted after the deadline)

9PM 19th July 2024 - Deadline for schools to confirm eligibility of students (we are unable to consider essays without confirmation of eligibility by this deadline)

Mid-September 2024 - Winners announced

2nd October 2024 - Prize-giving Ceremony at King’s College, Cambridge

Submissions

The submission should not contain any personally identifiable information. Please enter personal details in the submission form (link below) and not in the essay.

Please ensure you have obtained permission from a teacher at your school to submit, in the submission form you will need to provide an official (school) email address that your teacher is reachable on. Once an essay has been submitted, it is not possible to edit or resubmit.

The competition is free to enter. Please submit the essay as a word document (ensuring that the word count is met).

Any queries on the Essay Competition should be directed to Rhys Williams, entrepreneur@kings.cam.ac.uk

To submit your essay, please fill in this form here. The data notice and terms and conditions can be found here.

Your Data

Any personal data which may be submitted in an entry will be processed by King’s E-Lab, including members of King’s College, in accordance with any applicable data protection legislation, and the Privacy Notice available here. By submitting your essay and entering the competition you acknowledge that you have read and agree to these terms. For further information contact the College’s Data Protection Lead at foi@kings.cam.ac.uk or write to the Data Protection Lead, King’s College, Cambridge CB2 1ST.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I answer more than one of the three questions for the Essay Competition?

No, only one submission per person is allowed and this should only answer one of the three questions provided.

Can I make any changes once I have submitted my essay using the above form?

Please note that once you have submitted your entry it is not possible to make any changes – please ensure you are happy with your work before pressing ‘submit’.

Will I receive feedback on my essay?

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of submissions, it is not possible to provide feedback on individual essays.

I study outside of the UK, can I still enter?

Unfortunately, this competition is exclusively for students studying/living in the United Kingdom.

Why do I need to include contact information for a teacher at my school, and who should this be?

After you submit your essay, we get in touch with a contact at your school so that they can confirm you are eligible for the competition, and that the essay is your own work. This can be any teacher at your school who knows you, for example, one of your subject teachers, your form tutor, or your Head of Year. If this is a problem (e.g. you are home-schooled), please contact entrepreneur@kings.cam.ac.uk and we will try to accommodate this.