Welcome to the Young Work and Lancashire and North West Magazine’s UK wide competition for students

Our aims:
Create excitement and inspiration for the future.

Give useful experiences that will benefit, progress and help create professional contacts.

Provide a platform to ignite creativity and celebrate our younger generation.

Get students talking about the future and trying different things.

Promote careers conversations at home and with peers.

Open minds by showing a variety of possibilities.

We’re inviting businesses to help inspire the next generation by donating career-related prizes or experiences. This can be a workplace visit, a mentoring session, a day of work experience, or anything of your choosing. Your support can make a real difference to a young person’s future, and your business will be featured as a supporter.

To Donate a Prize:

If your business would like to get involved, please contact us at info@lancashiremagazine.co.uk

Meet our inspirational judges

The LM team are looking for genuine thoughts and feelings to be portrayed along with imagination and intrigue.  
Joe Foster is looking for unique talent, interesting material and to get to know a little about the writer through the work. 
Tyson Fury is looking for ambition, work ethic, effort and something to make him smile. 
Mina Anwar is looking at the flow, build and the evolution of the story element, with her director hat on, she always has an eye out for diverse and exciting content.

Keith Chapman

Keith Chapman is a British creator and producer, best known for Bob the Builder and PAW Patrol. He also created Roary the Racing Car and Fifi & the Flowertots, and is now working on Ozi, an animated film about an orangutan saving her rainforest. Keith continues to create engaging stories for children and families worldwide.

Joe Foster

Joe Foster, born in Bolton, is the founder of the world famous Reebok brand. Inspired by his grandfather, a pioneer of running shoes, Joe helped grow Reebok from a small UK operation in to a global sportswear giant. Joe, supported by his amazing wife Julie is passionate about helping businesses and young people grow and succeed. Together they travel the globe sharing their expertise, knowledge and business experiences and insight. 

Mina Anwar

Mina is an Iconic British actress, best known for her roles as Constable Maggie Habib in The Thin Blue Line and Gita Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Mina trained at The Mountview academy of theatre arts in London, and is also a singer, dancer, writer and director. Most recently famous for her very Lancashire portrayal of Shirley in Willy Russel’s Shirley Valentine, she has charmed audiences across the UK as she reinvented the role with an updated Lancashire based script, new energy and her Lancashire sparkle.

Lee Child

Lee Child is the best-selling author and creator of the iconic Jack Reacher series. After studying law in Sheffield, he spent 18 years at Granada Television in Manchester. He later turned to writing, and Jack Reacher has since become a global phenomenon, inspiring two films starring Tom Cruise, an Amazon Prime series, and a multi-billion-dollar media franchise.

Ian Mulingani

Ian Mulingani is managing director of Young Driver, the UK’s largest pre-17 driving school. He was one of the founders of the company in 2009 with the aim of reducing the shockingly high accident rate for newly qualified drivers. The organisation has now delivered over 1.6 million lessons at 70 venues across the country, as well as delivering lessons for schools.

Young Driver teaches children aged 9 to 17 in dual-controlled cars with fully qualified instructors, on private road systems designed to replicate real driving conditions. The scheme creates realistic road layouts complete with junctions, roundabouts and traffic signs, allowing youngsters to build confidence and skills safely. The focus is on developing responsible attitudes alongside core driving techniques such as steering, braking and parking, without the pressures of public roads. Four to nine-year olds can drive the specially designed electric Firefly Sport supercars.

The Lancashire Magazine Team

The team at LM are excited to connect with students and enjoy the carefully crafted stories that they know will come in. They are looking forward to finding out what teenagers are interested in and how they will portray this in a creative way. The L and NW Magazine has been established over 60 years and during that time has worked with some fantastic writers, so it will be great for them to play a hand in spotting the next wave of talent coming through. 

FAQ’s

All schools who enter get a free careers taster package and the first 50 schools to enter all get one remote work experience placement at Lancashire and NW Magazine where the student will have their work published and a reference for their CV.

Information and Rules:

Years 7 and 8
  • Write a short piece with the title ‘My Dream Job’.
  • Instruction: Submit a piece of writing on what your dream job is, what this job involves and why you’d love to have it.
  • Word count: Maximum 500 words
  • If you wish to include a picture you have drawn, you are welcome to do so.
Years 9, 10 and 11
Write a piece of factual or creative writing on an industry you’re interested in.
  • Instruction: You can focus on emerging trends, positive and negative aspects of the industry, ideas to improve the industry, why you’re interested in this industry, and its future.
  • Word count: Maximum 1,000 words.
  • If you would like to add a piece of artwork to your entry, please feel free to do so.
Sixth Form / College ages 16 - 18
  • Instructions:
  • You have 2 options to choose from:
  • Option 1 – Write a piece of factual or creative writing on an industry you’re interested in.
  • Word count: Maximum 1,000 words.
  • You can focus on emerging trends, positive and negative aspects of the industry, ideas to improve the industry, why you’re interested in this industry, and its future.

or

  • Option 2 – Please submit a personal statement showcasing your career ambitions, aspirations, and achievements. This can be the same statement you are planning to use for your university or apprenticeship applications.
  • If you would like to add a piece of artwork to your entry, please feel free to do so.
Special Educational Needs Schools

Open to all ages across the sector.

Instructions: Children can express themselves creatively in any way they choose. Last year, we received some fantastic entries including videos, pictures, posters, stories, and artwork.

How to enter

Please click on the submit button to upload your entry. This will direct you to upload a file or folder. When uploading, please ensure the folder includes, the name of your school, and the name and email address of the teacher who is to be our point of contact.
We ask that there is only one submission per child. Submissions can be either handwritten or typed, but they must include the child’s name and school to enable us to easily get in touch with the winning schools.
For all students that win a prize we will notify the teacher whose details are on their school submission pack.
Please share the prizes below with your students and ask that if there is one experience that is of particular interest to them, that they please pop it at the top of their entry, next to their name and school. Thank you very much and Best of luck.

Deadlines:

Entry deadline: TBC 
Winners announced: TBC
Prizes given out: TBC
Submit

Prizes

We have new prizes and experiences, vouchers kindly being donated all the time, here are some of the great prizes we have ready for you:

  • Learn how to be a chef with Maurizo Bocchi, winner of The PAPA Industry Award.
  • A remote business mentoring session with Joe Foster, the founder of Reebok.
  • A Boxing session with Tyson Fury, 2 time Heavy Weight Champion of the World.
  • A mentoring session with Silvia Werneli, Director of Schroders Bank.
  • Mentoring sessions with a CEO, to learn about what it takes to become a CEO, getting in to profit and all your questions answered.
  • Coaching experience at the The New Saints Football Club.
On all Secondary School and 16 Plus entries, if there is a specific prize that interests you the most, please place it at the top of your work.
In each category, there will be one winner and three runners-up. We will be publishing these winning entries in The Lancashire and North West Magazine.

The more work/inspirational experiences and gifts we receive from businesses, the more highly commended prizes we will have available for students. After the winners and runners up, we will pick out work that has been completed to a high standard, with great care and effort, and the remaining experiences and prizes will be distributed to these participants.

Nurjahan Begum, Parent of Mikaeel, a winner from 2024:

Mikaeel was absolutely thrilled to be mentored by David Hatton. It really left a lasting impression on him and inspired him to continue with his writing. He’s even started keeping a diary to capture his experiences with different people, which has been wonderful to see.

Get In Touch Anytime!

01253 336580

editorial@lancashiremagazine.co.uk