A team of students from Ballakermeen High School has been crowned Junior Achievement Student Company of the Year 2022.

Team Atlas, which includes Mika Chen, Joshua Holden, Deni Petrova, Cormac Ewan, Joshua Kewley and Georgia Harding, competed against 23 student companies to take the title after impressing the judges with their product ‘H2sOap’.

Atlas had one mission in mind when they created H2sOap: to reduce the amount of pollution caused by single-use plastic.

Single-use plastic is typically used once, but it needs hundreds of years to break down in landfills.

The company took note of how the world’s oceans are packed with floating plastics, and the amount is constantly increasing.

H2sOap product is an effervescent soap tablet that, when added to water, reacts to form a foaming hand soap. The product and the packaging are made with zero plastic.

More than 100 students from Ballakermeen High School, Castle Rushen High School, QEII High School, St Ninian’s High School and Ramsey Grammar School participated in the company programme, described as ‘the world’s top entrepreneurial programme for young people in education’.

Sponsored by HSBC Isle of Man and organised by Manx charity Junior Achievement, the company programme is supported by volunteer business mentors who donate their time to work with the teams.

After creating and running their business for six months, the students’ companies came together to participate in the national final that determined who would take home the HSBC JA Student Company of the Year title and trophy.

The full list of award winners includes:

Second place – Panthera from St Ninian’s High School for their all-in-one student lifestyle app.

Third place – Tot3ly from St Ninian’s for their handmade tote bags made from recycled materials.

Strix Award for Outstanding Team Member – Jerry Yao from St Ninian’s KPMG Award for Positive Social Impact – Tot3ly from St Ninian’s

Zurich International Life Award for Inspirational Leadership – Dominic Hubble from St Ninian’s and Olivia Butler from Ballakermeen

Celton Manx Award for Volunteer Mentor of the Year – Ed Walter from the MAC Group

Continent 8 Technologies Award for Best Use of Marketing – Tot3ly from St Ninian’s

Moni Talks Award for Financial Excellence – Atlas from Ballakermeen

Maggie Galloway Memorial Award for Best Trade Stand – Panthera from St Ninian’s