NSCG Business Students Face Local Dragons in Annual Competition
22 May 2026
Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group’s (NSCG) Dragons' Lair competition returned for another year, with a brand-new host of talented Business students pitching their ideas to employers in hopes they will ‘invest’ in their proposals.
Tasked with working in small groups to come up with original business plans, Level 2 and Level 3 BTEC Business students from Newcastle College spent the morning conducting thorough competitor research and creating marketing proposals and financial forecasts, all while considering and outlining the legal factors of their idea.
On Tuesday 20 May, local ‘Dragons’ both new and returning were welcomed on campus for the annual event. This year ‘dragons’ included professionals from Stoke City Football Club, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue, Neida Products Engineering and Barclays plc.
The student groups were judged on their business plans and the four with the highest score were invited into the Boardroom to present their ideas in more detail and take questions from the dragons, who then selected the worthy winners.
First place went to Evee Scragg, Scarlett Crombie, Louis Geotzee and Lewis Foxall who created FormFuel. A phone app which links together everything you need for a healthy lifestyle in one place including exercise, heathy eating, lifestyle and mental wellbeing. Particularly poignant in a digital age trying to remaster self-care, the Dragons were impressed with the thoughtful idea and the thorough research completed by the team.
Second place went to Steer, created by Grace Sheehan, Vika Polishchuk, Max Bailey and Blake Emery. Using their own experiences of learning to drive as inspiration, this innovative phone app, aims to take the stress out of learning to drive. Along with many interactive features, the app links tutors to learner divers and then learner drivers to available tests, keeping the entire process in one convenient place.
The third position went to NetGuard a company designed to create position specific volleyball shoes tailored uniquely to various playing styles. Created by Cody Talbot, Peter Kusinyir, Ryan Smith and Chris Chatzigeorgiou.
Fourth position went to Kai Shao, Will Johnson, Haseeb Khan and Nicholas Siaw of Fusion Fish, a mobile food vendor specialising in fish recipes from a variety of cultural origins.
The final award was the Janet Heath Memorial Award. Named after Dragons’ Lair creator with the winner decided by the Vocational Business team, is given to students who have been particularly impressive in their time at NSCG and have very often travelled a distance in terms of the development of soft skills. This year it was awarded to Finn Cole, Katie Holland and Azura Stevenson, whose business plan Casable designed a collection of uniquely environmentally friendly phone cases.
Mike Hulme, Lecturer in Business at NSCG said: “It was a great pleasure to welcome back so many of our valued employers to showcase the incredible talent our Business students have. Dragons’ Lair is one of the highlights of our year, the Dragons are always inspired by the imaginative, innovative business ideas pitched to the them. In return the Dragons critically analyse the students’ business plans and give the student the benefit of their industry experience, helping to move their dreams closer to reality.”
If you think you could face the dragons, why not take a look at the Business qualifications we offer.
