TWO Burnley girls are celebrating after winning a national enterprise award for students.

Grace Hyer and Victoria Stanworth, year ten GCSE students at Hameldon Community College, beat entrants from dozens of other schools to take top prize at the Bright Minds Enterprise Awards, organised by electronics firm Casio.

The pair’s De-Cycle business, which sees them reuse unwanted denim to create bespoke accessories, was voted the best idea by a panel of judges including former Apprentice contestant Nick Holzherr and Young Apprentice winner Zara Brownless.

The girls’ prize was a state-of-the-art projector for their school and the chance to work closely with the brand to launch their business with a £5,000 start-up package, to help with marketing and creating a website. Grace, 15, said delivering a presentation to the panel at the Bett exhibition in London was a great opportunity.

She said: “De-Cycle is about thinking of environmentally-friendly ways to use old clothes.

“We noticed that a few of our friends had loads of pairs of jeans that they were just going to throw away and we wanted to do something with them.

“It was really great to win and get advice from the guys from The Apprentice.

“I’m not sure if I want to get into business when I’m older but I think it’s nice that we’re able to have the opportunity.” Victoria, 14, said: “I really enjoyed it too.” Tim Gould, head of marketing at Casio, and a member of the judging panel, said: “We were looking for great ideas for an invention, business, product or service that would make the students school, community or the world a better place.

“All the ideas put forward did just this with such professionalism and the debate to pick a winner was intense.

“De-Cycle presented a great business idea, matched with real business feasibility and were able to showcase how it could impact their school, community and the world in a positive way.

“This really gave them the winning edge, we are looking forward to working closely with them over the coming months to take their brand further.”