For more information about Breaking the Mould click here.

To see our Breaking the Mould videos on YouTube click here.

Comments on Twitter and articles:

wendytanwhite Asked girls at #breakingthemould who’d like to work in tech? No-one. I asked who uses facebook? Sea of hands!

wendytanwhite @IamSairaKhan enjoyed meeting girls at breakingthemould sorry missed the final.

wendytanwhite @vickiowen Thanks Vicki really enjoyed it. Met some great girls and teachers. Invited to some schools to chat!

eastenra says:

Thanks for introduce those lovely and respectful women in the brochure of Financial Mail!

Daniel Britton says:

Looks like a great event. Young people have so much talent and creativity when allowed and encouraged to express it

eastenra says:

Yes, This FLYING KIWI breaking the mould by not to be a tarty person in entertaining environment and being a good role model for younglings by using her Godsend talent and beauty in a decent way to let God be honored!

dee blick says:

A fantastic initiative and a real in your face positive demonstration of Corporate Social Responsibility in action from a national media brand. Events such as this can only inspire young people to achieve professionally and they emphasise that there is more to life than becoming a celebrity! As a young girl I sought the advice of role models that did not fit into the strait jacket of accepted norms. Ironically I now get asked to speak to young people about overcoming adversity and I share through personal experience how challenges that can appear insurmountable are not if you tackle them bit by bit (I am a marketer and writer yet have Chronic repetitive strain injury severe enough to be classed as a disability, yet this did not stop me from writing my first book last year) A great piece and an incredible initiative. It will be good to read the follow up after the event.

Reseller Hosting says:

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Emails:

Withington Girls School, Manchester:

Stephen Boddy, Head of Economics:

‘The Breaking the Mould conference was an outstanding event, bringing together a unique collection of national and international female leaders.  A succession of inspirational and successful women gave a fascinating insight into their lives – ranging from business start-ups, apprentices,  multinational companies, charities and the police. The students gained an insight into the challenges and opportunities available and were clearly motivated to aim high and succeed. Full credit to the Financial Mail for organising such an event.’

‘For our students this was an outstanding experience. They were given the opportunity to use flair, imagination and teamwork to produce a resource that could teach personal finance in schools. Realising the importance of financial education they worked hard to develop a lively, informative and challenging business game.  At the national finance they had the unique and fascinating experience of being questioned by Margaret Mountford ,Saira Khan and Tim Campbell of the ‘Apprentice.’ An unforgettable day which challenged and engaged the students.’

Message from the winning team, Money Minded:

‘Dear Lisa. Thanks for such an excellent day at the Breaking the Mould conference and for running the Apprentice competition.’ From Stephen Boddy, Jayana Patel, Nicole Jesse, Gabrielle Westington, Alex Davis, Elise Varley, Shruti Chaudhary, Alex Davis.

Wycombe Abbey School:

Emily Boswell, Director of Higher Education and Careers:

‘I just wanted to say a huge thank you for organising such an inspiring, successful conference on Monday. The students I brought with me thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as I did. It was great to get out of school and to meet some truly exceptional women – all really good role models for the girls.  Some of the speakers have given me their contact details and have also said that they are willing to visit the school, host work experience or talk to our girls.  What was particularly notable was the very wide range of careers covered – it is rare to find all this huge range of experience and knowledge represented in just one day.

We would love to come to any similar events which you might be organising in the future, although I am sure that planning the next one is probably the last thing on your mind at the moment!’

Deborah Bosanquet:

‘Just a quick note to say a huge ‘thank you’ for arranging places for Jess and I to come up to London and enjoy a wonderful day at the Mail on Sundays’ women forums Breaking the Mould conference.

We had an absolutely fantastic time and Jessica was amazed at all the contacts that were available for her to make.

She really had her eyes opened and I am so grateful that you gave us the chance to meet and mingle with some of the girls from the London schools, she now realises that she can’t mess around anymore – there is too much talent out there.’

Bromley High:

Jayne Murphy:

‘Just to say how much I enjoyed the conference on Monday. The range of speakers was outstanding and the standard of the exhibition stands very high. There is a lot of information to feedback to students. A truly worthwhile event.’

Stratford upon Avon Grammar School for Girls:

Rachel Key, Work-Related Learning Co-ordinator:

‘I want to thank-you both for the experience my students (and I) enjoyed yesterday. The quality of the speakers, in terms of their both their achievements and ability to engage young people, was outstanding. It is easy to under appreciate just how rare it is for young women to be in a room with any women who are leaders in their field, let alone the number we saw yesterday. I was particularly pleased to see so many technology advocates as really struggle to deliver the relevant and exciting role models who are so critical to non-traditional career paths.

“Thank you SO much for taking us to London today, it was really interesting and inspiring.” This was just one of the emails I have received this morning from my students and by the time I made it into the staff room the staff had already heard the buzz from the girls (this really is not that usual!). More formal thanks to follow but I know what a massive undertaking that was and hope that you sense just how worthwhile it was for all the participants. Grateful thanks to Vicki, the team at Intercontinental and everyone else who made the day so memorable.’

City of London School for Girls:

Diana Vernon, headmistress:

‘Many congratulations on a really triumphant ‘Breaking the Mould’ conference yesterday. As soon as I arrived in the morning and saw how busy it was and how many students the day had attracted, from all over the country, I knew what a success it was likely to be. This view was reinforced by the line up of wonderful speakers that you had persuaded to speak. Everything was confirmed when I heard the buzz of the girls during the various breaks.’

You can send feedback to women@financialmail.co.uk.

The team, calling themselves Money Minded, triumphed in a nationwide contest to devise and market a game to make teaching personal finance fun.

Withington’s game beat three other impressive shortlisted entries in front of an audience of 350 students and teachers at the climax of Financial Mail’s Breaking the Mould conference on Monday March, in Park Lane, central London.

The Money Minded team, aged 16 to 17, faced a grilling from the stars of BBC TV’s The Apprentice – Margaret Mountford (Lord Alan Sugar’s right-hand woman), Saira Khan and Tim Campbell – in the ‘boardroom’ before going on to win the £3,000 for their school.

The runner-up teams, from The Cherwell School, in Oxford (team iFloos pictured left), Plymouth College (team Game Girls) and King’s High, Warwick (team Financeville), each collected cheques for £1,000.

Money Minded team members Jayana Patel, Elise Varley, Alex Davis, Nicole Jesse, Gabby Westington and Shruti Chaudhary designed and produced a board game for up to six players that they estimated would cost £7 to make, but would sell for £14.

Up to six players can travel around the brain-shaped board using brain-shaped counters. They must answer multiple choice questions, true or false questions, solve anagrams or provide longer answers under time pressure, while attempting to reach the end of the board to become the winner.

The personal finance questions for the game were printed on the back of cards designed to look like credit and debit cards, with different colours representing levels of difficulty.

The team impressed the judges with their enthusiasm for learning about financial products such as current accounts, interest rates, mortgages and pensions.

Personal finance lessons will become compulsory in schools from next year. According to the Personal Finance Education Group half of teenagers have been in debt by the age of 17.

A spokeswoman for MoneySense, which works with 60 per cent of secondary schools, said RBS was thrilled to support a competition that encouraged and empowered young people to think for themselves about how they would like to deliver financial education in an innovative way.

The winners, team Money Minded (Withington Girls School, Manchester):

Team Game Girls (Plymouth College):

Team iFloos (pupils of The Cherwell School, Oxford):

Team Financeville (King’s High, Warwick):

For more clips from Breaking the Mould 2010, go to www.youtube.com/fmwfvideos.

On Monday March 1 classical singing star Hayley Westenra, 22, who is also Unicef’s youngest-ever ambassador, joined other stars lending their support to the conference, which aimed to broaden the career horizons of young women, encouraging them to consider non-traditional jobs.

We organised some top flight panels of speakers for the conference which looked at apprenticeships and careers to do with the senses such as optometry and food. We also took a look at some of the ‘hidden’ jobs to be found within big organisations, ranging from things like PR and marketing to community programmes and sponsorship.

There was a panel of women who have completely changed career direction, showing that wrong choices can be righted and also suggesting the flexibility which may well be needed with ever longer working lives.  We had speakers on technology and telecoms and looked at the possibilities associated with entrepreneurship.

Model-turned-entrepreneur Caprice Bourret also spoke to the 350-strong audience, while the climax of the day was the live final of the MoneySense Apprentice Challenge, judged by stars of BBC’s Apprentice, Margaret Mountford, Saira Khan and Tim Campbell.

Full list of speakers:

Lisa Buckingham, Editor Financial Mail and Founder FMWF

Caron Jones, Director of Human Resources, InterContinental Hotel London Park Lane

Caprice Bourret, model-turned-entrepreneur (click here for conference clip)

Hayley Westenra, classical singing star (click here for conference clip)

Apprenticeships panel:

Rachel Rawlinson, Retail Qualifications Manager for B&Q

Natasha Munro, 2nd Year Adv’ Apprentice in Customer Service, BT (click here for conference clip)

Jane Crane, Senior Resourcing Manager, Network Rail

Lauren Norris, Apprentice, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (click here for conference clip)

Jenna Weston, Gas Engineer for British Gas (click here for conference clip)

Sleuthing panel:

Phillippa Williamson, Chief Executive of the Serious Fraud Office (click here for conference clip)

Gill Evans, Detective Chief Inspector, Metropolitan Police Service (click here for conference clip)

Anne Evans, Senior Inspector of Air Accidents (Engineering) at the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB)

Secret jobs in a big organisation panel (RBS/NatWest):

Carolyn Currie, Head of Women in Business for NatWest and RBS (click here for conference clip)

Andi Keeling, Head of Learning for RBS (click here for conference clip)

Louise Johnson, F1 Sponsorship Manager for RBS Group (click here for conference clip)

Fiona Cook, Group Community Investment Manager for RBS (click here for conference clip)

Second thoughts panel (speakers who have had a career change):

Maxine Benson, Co-founder of everywoman

Karen Gill, Co-founder of everywoman

Sarah Hunt, Founder Equity FD

Telecoms:

Danuta Gray, Chief Executive of Telefonica O2 Ireland

Enterprise:

Sara Murray, Founder of Confused.com and buddi

Charity panel:

Jane Keeper, Director of Operations at Refuge

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust

Sophi Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate Ltd

Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of Save the Children

Senses panel:

Heena Thaker, Optometrist for Specsavers

Justine Waloch, Physiotherapist for Associated Newspapers

Alex Tilling, H&H Bancroft Wines

Elizabeth Tempest, Audiologist for Specsavers

Helen Munday, Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Coca-Cola (click here for conference clip)

Technology panel:

Wendy Tan White, Founder of Moonfruit.com

Holly Tucker, Co-founder of Notonthehighstreet.com

Helen Cook, Sales Leader for IBM Global Technology Services across UK and Ireland (click here for conference clip)

Maya Moufarek, Regional Marketing Manager Consumer Apps EMEA for Google

MoneySense Apprentice Challenge judges:

Margaret Mountford, British lawyer, business woman and TV personality (Lord Sugar’s former aide on BBC’s The Apprentice)

Saira Khan, Founder Miamoo and former contestant on The Apprentice

Tim Campbell, Founder Bright Ideas Trust and former contestant on The Apprentice

Pictures have been added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

The chandeliers glittered as we tip-toed into the vast conference room at the Intercontinental Hotel for the Breaking the Mould conference, and we shared a gasp. Rows and rows of women were all looking intently at the four inspiring women, experts on the food and drink industry. As we made our way to some free spaces, we sensed the tingling excitement and level of inspiration projected by these women in business.

Helen Munday was speaking, explaining to us in fine detail about how her career took off, and amusing us with her unique degree in meat and her amazing privilege in culinary dog food tasting! Coming to the conference was very rewarding, learning about some of the many possible careers for women in the big world of multi-nationals and small businesses.

We had made it to the final of the RBS M0neySense Apprentice Challenge and had been sent to this swanky hotel to face the fearsome Margaret Mountford. In front of 350 people, our video would be watched after a filming and editing process which had taken place over the last two weeks, by a professional – Cathy Hassan. She had really done us more than justice for our presentation!

We have had a rollercoaster of a ride to get to our interactive computer game ‘iPicture Finance’ and had the honour of collaborating with so many of The Financial Mail team. We were jittering every now and then in our seats at the thought of the tough questioning we would face in front of the large audience, including our family and teacher.

As the conference was drawing to a close, the Financial Mail had decided that we hadn’t seen enough inspirational and successful people so they brought on Caprice Bourret and Hayley Westenra. They were, without a doubt, very head-strong and hard working and had the audience glued to their seats. Caprice’s discovery of the tough world of working on your own and Hayley’s true dedication to her charity work gave great interest to the audience.

After listening to two very motivating speeches, it was time for the groups to meet the judges-nerve racking! We remember vividly as we entered the meeting room; Tim Campbell was stood in the corner, stroking his chin with a thoughtful look at the laptop. He looked up at us and grinned: “The two sisters – I have been looking forward to meet you both!”. Margaret is not the ice-queen she appears on TV, but really a very funny and bubbly woman. We enjoyed talking to both Tim and Saira Khan about their role in the Apprentice!

However, we knew that after a final interview with Gaynor Pengelly and Cathy Hassan, we would face the judges on stage for some serious questions into our game. Although the thought of it was scary, we realised as soon as we stepped onto stage, that we were very comfortable with what they asked, and we actually enjoyed it! We couldn’t believe that we were being quizzed by the Apprentice masters themselves, whose questions sparked thought and interest. To have three truly influential and high profile figures take such an interest into our game was an honour, and we were thrilled.

Our ‘game of the future’ missed out on 1st prize, however we were so ecstatic of not only the £1000 we received from our sponsorship, but the response to our presentation and the many obstacles that we have combated. After the event, our mum greeted us and said: “I am no longer afraid of your interviews at university; once you had shaken off the nerves you were fantastic!”

We gained so much from this experience. Not only did we learn the behind the scenes of filming and the media industry (eight hours for a five minute film was hard work!), we learnt also about business and communication in the outside world. Our school (The Cherwell School, Oxford) were delighted with our efforts and Mr McGowan, our head teacher, spoke to us personally. “Nowadays, everyone that leaves the school has excellent grades”, he told us. “But this experience will show that you’re the full package and put you above the rest at university.”

We decided that some of the money in the school should go towards the Gcato Project, a charity set up by one of our teachers to give schools in Africa a chicken shed to start up their own business and earn money to run the school. In addition, we will enrich the science department too, as we both have a great passion for the sciences.

A truly inspirational day – we recommend that any girl looking for some innovation and excitement should go. It was a major learning curve for the both of us!

ALL Breaking the Mould pictures are being added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

Classical singing star Hayley Westenra, 22, who is also Unicef’s youngest-ever ambassador, joined other stars lending their support to the conference. The event aimed to broaden the career horizons of young women, encouraging them to consider non-traditional jobs.

Model-turned-entrepreneur Caprice Bourret also spoke to the audience of 350, while stars of BBC TV’s The Apprentice judged the final of Financial Mail’s MoneySense Apprentice Challenge.

The Breaking the Mould conference gained the support of some of Britain’s top employers, with NatWest, the Serious Fraud Office, O2, IBM, the Food and Drink Federation, the InterContinental Hotel Group, British Gas and B&Q all sponsoring the event.

It is the third time that Financial Mail has staged the careers conference and it was the first occasion at which students, as well as teachers, were offered the chance to listen to women in a range of unconventional and sometimes surprising careers.

With today’s youngsters likely to be in full-time work until they hit 70, it is more important than ever that those years are spent in a rewarding and fulfilling way.

Charlotte Parker, a sixth-form student from Leicester High School for Girls, said: ‘It was such a stimulating conference I feel I’m quite inspired. Companies rarely come to our schools to talk to us about their programmes, so it was a very good chance for us to broaden our minds.’

ALL Breaking the Mould pictures are being added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

Though my fantastic team and I barely had time to draw breath during the conference itself, it seemed that, by and large, the vast majority of the 350 students and teachers who came to the InterContinental on Monday had a great time and went away buzzing with ideas about the world of work.

We had spent all Sunday stuffing goody bags, inserting leaflets into brochures and sorting hundreds of name tags into alphabetical order. And frankly as we finally found our hotel rooms at about midnight with a six o/clock start to look forward to, success seemed a distant prospect. Producing a newspaper from scratch each week was looking like a doddle.

But the day dawned sunny and brilliantly blue – perfect for our guests to look out over Hyde Park at its splendid best. And the possibility that we might be about to pull the whole thing off without mishap slowly became a reality.

I must admit I was amazed at how interested the girls were in everything – many of them were taking notes during the speeches, they flocked to all the exhibition stands over and over again, they bombarded the speakers with questions and our sponsors with requests for work experience and to make visits to their schools. Have a look at the brochure we produced to go with the conference (in the Breaking the Mould part of the site) and you’ll get an idea of the extraordinary top flight range of speakers we organised for the day and get a sense of why the girls were so excited.

Guest appearances from model-turned-entrepreneur Caprice and the classical singing sensation Hayley Westenra added to the glamour of the day which, for some of the delegates, was the first time they had visited
London letalone spent time in one of the Capital’s most sought after hotels.

Needless to say the Formula 1 simulators brought along by the sponsorship team of RBS NatWest drew a constant crowd – but, there again, so did Louise Johnson who spoke about her exciting ’secret’ career looking
after F1 sponsorship within a bank that now sees her jetting around the world and rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous of the motor racing circuit.

There was also a huge buzz around the stunning Rolls-Royce that had ferried apprentice Lauren Norris to the event so she could take part in our opening panel and was parked by the ballroom entrance all day to allow
girls (and me!) quite possibly a once in a lifetime chance to sit in such a vehicle.

The Serious Fraud Office ran a competition on its stand with prizes at the end of the day while Gill Evans from the Metropolitan Police turned up with some of the firearms and other hardware deployed on the streets of
London for the girls to see. I couldn’t get anywhere near the O2 stand to see what was going on as it was perpetually surrounded by students!

As you can see from the brochure we crammed loads into the day and I was extremely grateful that our speakers buried their egos and spoke for only their allotted time so we could keep to a death defyingly tight schedule.

The climax of the day for some of the girls was the final of our MoneySense Financial Mail Apprentice Challenge 2010 in which we gave a prize of £3000 to the winning team from Manchester and £1000 to the three
runners up (details are in Vicki Owen’s report of the day in Financial Mail and elsewhere on the site).

In front of a huge audience the girls showed films professionally taken of their projects by our artistic director Cathy Hassan and then withstood some tough questioning in our very own boardroom from TV’s Apprentice stars, Margaret Mountford, Saira Khan and Tim Campbell, who really put them through their paces.

What was really satisfying though was the number of girls who sought me out to say thank you and tell me what a wonderful time they’d had. And it was so gratifying to hear teachers and our other guests from the Financial Mail Women’s Forum say how much they wished there’d been something like Breaking the Mould when they had been at school.

Satisfying and gratifying enough to do it all over again for Breaking the Mould IV next year? I think I’ll have to consult the women who really deserve the praise for last week: Vicki Owen, Gaynor Pengelly and Jackie Jay.

ALL Breaking the Mould pictures are being added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

But with the bleak outlook for employment making the prospect of huge student debts even less appealing, Financial Mail’s Breaking the Mould conference decided to feature apprenticeships at the top of the agenda.

The apprenticeship panel (pictured), sponsored by British Gas and DIY retailer B&Q, looked at some of the major schemes and merits – for some – of entering the workforce and gaining qualifications ‘on the job’.

According to a recent YouGov study, more than three-quarters of 16 to 17-year-olds have never considered becoming an apprentice over going to university.

But Lauren Norris (pictured), a 19-year-old apprentice for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said that training as an apprentice had given her a ‘fantastic opportunity to work alongside master craftsmen and women.’

Lauren, from Angmering, West Sussex, started her Rolls-Royce apprenticeship at the company’s Thatcham training centre in Berkshire after leaving school.

Her first year was spent learning basic skills in the surface finish centre.

She says: ‘I have always loved cars and creative art, so paint seemed to be the closest match.’

By her second year Lauren was working towards an NVQ2 National Vocational Qualification and was learning more advanced techniques.

Lauren says: ‘The combination of practical experience and education has allowed me to enjoy my job while gaining accredited qualifications at the same time.’

Now in her third year, Lauren will be entering a specialist area in preparation for a permanent position.

Lauren appeared on a panel that also featured apprenticeship schemes run by BT, British Gas, Network Rail and B&Q.

Lauren says: ‘Gaining the skills and knowledge of creative techniques by working in different teams across Rolls-Royce has helped build my confidence and develop my career.’

Meanwhile the Rolls-Royce apprenticeship scheme has been labelled ‘outstanding’ in every area in its latest Ofsted inspection report. There are more than 650 Rolls-Royce apprenticeships doing their training at the group’s sites.

ALL Breaking the Mould pictures are being added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

Maya Moufarek, Consumer Apps EMEA for Google; Wendy Tan White, founder of Moonfruit.com; Holly Tucker, Co-founder of notonthehighstreet.com and Helen Cook, IBM’s Sales Leader for Global Technology Services all gave inspirational talks and encouraged the girls to share their perceptions of the industry.

When they were asked ‘How many of you want a career in technology?’ only a handful of hands went up. Wendy Tan White, who also worked on the team which set up Egg.com (the world’s first internet bank) in 1997, asked: ‘Do you think it is too dull and boring? Do you see it as a male-dominated industry?’.

Not surprisingly, nearly every hand in the room went up when Holly Tucker, Co-founder of e-tailer notonthehighstreet.com, asked how many of the girls used Facebook or Twitter. She said: ‘Technology is just everwhere and everyone is using it in their daily life.’

The speakers encouraged girls to recognise the connection between products and services they use on a daily basis and the exciting and varying opportunities for work within the sector.

Lisa Buckingham, editor of Financial Mail on Sunday and founder of FMWF, said of the event overall: ‘It is a chance to say to the girls; “You do not need to be taking on traditional careers”, and the event is to advise and show them what alternative routes girls can consider when making their career choices.’

Charlotte Parker, from Leicester High School for Girls, said: ‘It’s such a stimulating conference and I feel I’m quite inspired. Companies rarely come to our school to talk to us about their programmes, so it is a very good chance for us to broaden our minds.’

Maureen Traquair, education manager from The Oil & Gas Academy, an organisation which bridges the gap between educational institutions and industry, said: ‘Most of the local companies do not market to schools. Some of them I know are even banging on the schools’ doors, but schools do not respond.’

Sue Cunningham, a teacher from Newport Girls’ High School, said: ‘A practical-based college will be more willing to work with companies than those sixth forms preparing pupils for university.’

She added: ‘I hope my girls will bring what they have heard back to school and share with other girls the passion, energy, hard-working nature, drive to succeed and no fear of failing [of the speakers] which are very inspirational.’

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

The team, calling themselves Money Minded, triumphed in a nationwide contest to devise and market a game to make teaching personal finance fun.

Withington’s game beat three other impressive shortlisted entries in front of an audience of 350 students and teachers at the climax of Financial Mail’s Breaking the Mould conference on Monday, in Park Lane, central London.

The Money Minded team, aged 16 to 17, faced a grilling from the stars of BBC TV’s The Apprentice – Margaret Mountford (Lord Alan Sugar’s right-hand woman), Saira Khan and Tim Campbell – in the ‘boardroom’ before going on to win the £3,000 for their school.

The runner-up teams, from The Cherwell School, in Oxford (team iFloos pictured left), Plymouth College (team Game Girls) and King’s High, Warwick (team Phoenix), each collected cheques for £1,000.

Money Minded team members Jayana Patel, Elise Varley, Alex Davis, Nicole Jesse, Gabby Westington and Shruti Chaudhary designed and produced a board game for up to six players that they estimated would cost £7 to make, but would sell for £14.

Up to six players can travel around the brain-shaped board using brain-shaped counters. They must answer multiple choice questions, true or false questions, solve anagrams or provide longer answers under time pressure, while attempting to reach the end of the board to become the winner.

The personal finance questions for the game were printed on the back of cards designed to look like credit and debit cards, with different colours representing levels of difficulty.

The team impressed the judges with their enthusiasm for learning about financial products such as current accounts, interest rates, mortgages and pensions.

Personal finance lessons will become compulsory in schools from next year. According to the Personal Finance Education Group half of teenagers have been in debt by the age of 17.

A spokeswoman for MoneySense, which works with 60 per cent of secondary schools, said RBS was thrilled to support a competition that encouraged and empowered young people to think for themselves about how they would like to deliver financial education in an innovative way.

Delegates at the Breaking the Mould conference – the third such careers conference for schools that Financial Mail has organised – heard from top-flight speakers. The day-long showcase was designed to capture students’ imaginations and encourage them to think in adventurous ways about their approach to the world of work.

Phillippa Williamson, chief executive of the Serious Fraud Office, led a panel looking at the business of ’sleuthing’ alongside detective of air accidents at the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch.

IBM led a panel looking at jobs in the technology sector with Wendy Tan White, the founder of web-hosting company moonfruit.com who was also involved in setting up egg.com, Maya Moufarek, a marketing manager for Google and Holly Tucker, founder of e-retailer notonthehighstreet.com.

Danuta Gray, chief executive of Telefonica O2 Ireland (pictured), spoke encouragingly about careers for young women in telecoms. A team from NatWest spoke of the ‘hidden jobs’ within large organisations such as sponsorship and events management, which are not often associated with careers in the banking sector.

The Food and Drink Federation sponsored talks about careers involving the senses, such as creating perfume and wine tasting, as well as optometry, audiology and physiotherapy.

ALL Breaking the Mould pictures are being added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).

The video entries of the MoneySense Apprentice Challenge finalists, one-to-one interviews with some of our inspirational speakers, and clips from the day will be uploaded to our YouTube page.

Click here for the brochure: Breaking the Mould 2010 brochure.

As we are a Sunday newspaper, we are holding off on giving you the full report before it has appeared in Financial Mail this Sunday March 7th. So pick up a Mail on Sunday this weekend! If you visit www.fmwf.com in the coming weeks you will also find all our video footage from the day (filmed by Cathy Hassan), one-to-one interviews with some of our inspirational speakers and pictures from the day.

We organised some top flight panels of speakers for the conference which looked at apprenticeships and careers to do with the senses such as optometry and food. We also took a look at some of the ‘hidden’ jobs to be found within big organisations ranging from things like PR and marketing, to community programmes and sponsorship.

There was a panel of women who have completely changed career direction showing that wrong choices can be righted and also suggesting the flexibility which may well be needed with ever longer working lives.  We had speakers on technology and telecoms and looked at the possibilities associated with entrepreneurship.

The climax of the day was the live final of the MoneySense Apprentice Challenge, judged by stars of BBC’s Apprentice, Margaret Mountford, Saira Khan and Tim Campbell.

Pick up a Mail on Sunday or visit www.fmwf.com on Sunday to read about it, and find out who won the MoneySense Apprentice Challenge and what their game to teach personal finance involved…

Pictures will be added to the FMWF Facebook group – FMWF: Women in Business (click here).