A group of south Essex students put their training to good effect when they entered a national competition. 
The team, from Peter Jones Enterprise Academy (part of South Essex College) proved so professional they made the final of a top national challenge for business students. 
The contest, renowned for its toughness, was the Negotiation Challenge, sponsored and run by the Cips, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply.
Floriana Bucolli, a Peter Jones Enterprise Academy student at the college, made it to the final with Georgia Sleath and Harry Cooper 
She said: “I have never been so nervous, and the demands were pretty gruelling. The most stressful part was having to negotiate with other colleges and then report our strategies back to the CIPS management panel.” 
As a first step towards competing for the final, the students had to create a presentation film and upload it to YouTube. 
Floriana said: “The presentation had to demonstrate how we would negotiate in six different scenarios, including negotiating a better deal on a car and negotiating a discount on a meal.” 
Cips chose six teams from different colleges to attend the final, held at Heathrow airport. The clincher involved negotiating for plots of land. 
Steve Newman, the course leader, said: “The CIPS Challenge is all about developing students’ employability and negotiating skills by testing them in a pressurised situation. 
“It’s the sort of situation they would find themselves in when working in the real world business environment. 
“It also gave them a taste of the business world in another way, by putting them in front of a formal panel of business leaders. The whole process was planned to place big demands on them, and it certainly achieved that.” 
Floriana said: “The whole day was really well planned, because it  brought us out of our comfort zones.” 
The students’ achievement was acknowledged in a personal message from Peter Jones CBE, the entrepreneur and Dragons Den star, after whom the academy is named. 
He said: “I am delighted your efforts have been recognised in a national arena.. My mission is to put enterprise at the very heart of every young person’s education 
“A key principle of the academy is ‘learning by dong’. 
“So, it is fantastic to see so many young people meeting this vision and such a good example of learning by doing taking place at South Essex College.” 
The academy’s one-year enterprise and entrepreneurship Level 3 diploma offers a fast-track qualification for young would-be business people. 
It is available both at the Southend academy, and at South Essex College’s new Thurrock Campus in Grays town centre.