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Schools

Experience | Judgement | Opportunity

Junior Trader gives your students something the curriculum often can’t: real exposure to financial markets and careers in finance, delivered by people who’ve actually worked in the City.

Since 2008 we’ve worked with nearly 1,000 students, helping them build skills, confidence and credentials that stand out on UCAS applications, CVs and in interviews – particularly for students who don’t have a professional network to fall back on.

We offer three ways for your school to get involved, and most schools combine more than one – across a range of year groups and subjects, not just sixth form economics students.

Please contact us for details of subsidised places.

Junior Trader: the core programme

A two-session, team-based stock-picking challenge that introduces students to graduate roles in the City before putting them through a live simulation of equities research and trading. Teams build a balanced portfolio, respond to real-world economic conditions, and submit a written investment report at the end. It’s competitive, hands-on and approved as a Duke of Edinburgh Award Skill. Every student who completes the programme earns a Certificate of Attendance.

Delivery

Session 1: The programme kicks off with a fast-paced introduction to graduate roles in the City, followed by a simulation of equities research and trading. Students form teams and compete in a stock-picking challenge.

Session 2: A deeper dive into “What Moves a Share Price” builds participants’ analytical skills, helping them construct a balanced portfolio of retail investments informed by real-world economic conditions.

Final Task: Each team submits a written report explaining their investment choices. Completion of this task earns students a Certificate of Attendance (and the DofE Skill recognition if applicable).

2026/2027 UK Schools

The 26/27 program officially starts on the first dealing day, prior to which students will have enrolled, formed teams and received their induction lecture and the outline to the competition. The dealing day is typically the last day of the December term when all investments are locked in.

At the midway point of the competition, all trades are liquidated, and the teams are tasked with providing their written report. With equal weighting between the two elements, a strong report can overcome any trading mishaps!

Final placings and certificates are delivered with personal feedback by the end of the first half term in 2027.

International Schools

For our international school partners, the lecture sequence is slightly different.

Teams are able to enter the competition remotely, and the in-person lecture takes place in the new year, giving teams an insight into report writing and retrospectively analysing performance with a market expert.

What sets Junior Trader apart is the personal contact with teams. Whether students receive a lecture before the competition about the origins of the markets, midway to review performance, or at the end to review outcomes, all participants receive personal feedback.

Those schools in the IDofE network still qualify for certification.

City Lecture Tours: take it outside the classroom

Our guided walking tours of the City of London or Manchester turn the streets themselves into the lecture. Led by a former Investment Bank Director and plc CEO, students walk the actual sites where modern financial markets developed, learning how trading and finance evolved through history, geography and economics – and where they might fit into that story. Tours work just as well as a History or Geography enrichment trip as they do a finance-focused one, and we tailor the content and pace to size and age of the group.

What students get out of it

Students build teamwork, communication and time management skills, gain a genuine taste of how financial markets work, and hear directly from people working in the sector – the kind of insight that’s hard to come by without a personal connection to the industry.

Get your school involved

Whether you’re looking to bring the core programme into your enrichment timetable, add JT+ for your most engaged students, or book a private City tour for an economics, history or geography group, we’ll work with you to fit it around your school year.

“Every single one of our Economics students put Junior Trader on their UCAS applications last year.”

Head of Sixth Form

Interested in Junior Trader?