The Prince’s Trust Million Makers competition has taken off in Northern Ireland with several of Northern Ireland’s top companies competing to outdo each other in this entrepreneurial fundraising initiative.

The real life challenge pits talented teams across the region against each other for the next six months. Each company will receive £1,500 of seed funding in a ‘Dragons Den style’ investment and their goal is to raise £10,000.

At the launch day, John Lundy, Executive and Business Support Manager from Translink said:

"We are delighted to be taking part in Million Makers to raise funds for The Prince's Trust.  As a leading business in Northern Ireland in terms of corporate responsibility, our staff have supported a range of charity initiatives over recent years.  We have been delighted with the tremendous level of enthusiasm and commitment our graduate team have shown for this scheme which is also helping to support their training programme".

Now in its eight year, the fundraising competition which is supported by Capita has successfully raised £350,000 to help The Prince’s Trust support disadvantaged young people from the ages of 13 to 30 across Northern Ireland.

Darryl Hill, Operations Director at Capita HR Solutions, Northern Ireland said: 

"Capita in Northern Ireland is delighted to be supporting The Prince’s Trust and taking part in the 2015 Prince’s Trust Million Makers programme, to raise some much needed funds for those young people in Northern Ireland who need our help most. 

Our partnership with The Prince’s Trust allows us to make real change in addressing the skills gap in Northern Ireland as we work together to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people and transform the future of our next generation of workers.

Million Makers is an opportunity for companies to engage, inspire and motivate employees to develop many transferable skills such as leadership, motivation and decision making, while generating funds to help young people turn their lives around.

Ian Jeffers, Director of The Prince’s Trust in Northern Ireland said:

A huge thank you to all our Million Makers 2015 teams! Nine out of ten participants taking part in the competition say they have picked up new skills which they can bring back to the workplace. The competitive element injects fun into fundraising and it is great to see how much team members gain out of taking part in the challenge.

The companies participating in this year’s competition are Capita, Translink, ShredBank and Concentrix.