Prime Minister David Cameron today hailed a group of Britain’s brightest teenage entrepreneurs as the ‘key to the future prosperity of this country.’

The Prime Minister’s words came as 12 teams of young business people gathered in London to compete for the prestigious HSBC ‘Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award 2011.’

The Awards ceremony marked the climax of a year which saw 30,000 teenagers from over 1,415 schools set up more than 2,200 companies as part of the ‘Company Programme’ organised by Young Enterprise, the UK’s leading enterprise education charity.

The programme enables young people work with experienced business mentors and gain cutting-edge business and entrepreneurship skills through hands-on experience. Early indications suggest that between them these young business start-ups have this year generated over two million pounds turnover – a particularly inspiring achievement given the current difficult economic climate.

Many of the dozen companies who made it to the final have successfully sold their products to major companies and a variety of high street shops. Firms in the competition designed, manufactured and sold products such as the ‘Treasure Chest’- a portable safety pocket for women that fits discreetly inside the bra cup. Another company formed a record label which designs and produces CDs featuring fresh local talent; and an enterprising group seized the timely opportunity provided by the Olympics to design and sell medal winning sports spectator aprons.

Storming to victory however with the ‘Perfume Pen’ – an executive style pen that doubles as a portable perfume dispenser -  was the Summit Enterprise company, from St. Paul’s School, London. Judges from HSBC, Coca Cola Enterprises and Cisco were deeply impressed by the quality of the product, the professionalism of the team and the mature understanding of business that the young people developed while taking part.

''The jobs and growth of the future will be built on the efforts of the people who are prepared to take a risk, roll up their sleeves and start and grow a business.

''That is why I am so determined to get behind Britain's budding entrepreneurs and to make the next decade the most entrepreneurial and the most dynamic in our nation's history.

''Young Enterprise is vital in fostering the culture of enterprise we need right across our country. So I am delighted to be able to support these awards, to celebrate the achievement of hundreds of thousands of young people who have taken part in a Young Enterprise programme this year and, of course, to congratulate today's outstanding finalists.”

John May, CEO of Young Enterprise, the UK’s leading enterprise education charity welcomed the Prime Minister’s support. He said: “There is a wealth of talent amongst our young generation, as demonstrated today, which we all should be enormously proud of. They have proven that you are never too young to start your own business.

‘’Young Enterprise is delighted to enable these young people to learn the necessary skills to help them succeed in the future – whether that be in further education, the work place or starting up their own businesses – all of which will boost future economic growth in this country. But we must do more. We need to get more young people involved and to do that, we need more businesses to enable their staff to volunteer and pass on their skills and more support from government and educators to make this happen.”