IT used to be that careers advice was all about getting your CV right, doing work experience and getting the right qualifications. But, for a new generation of students, that is not enough. Maybe they have seen their parents struggle with the pressures of work and the 9-5 drudgery of an office job. Maybe, critics say, it is the latest example of the get-rich-quick generation, where Apprentice-style overnight fame circumvents hard work and the discipline of rising through the ranks.

Certainly, this latest bunch of teenagers are showing a determination to think creatively and have the ambition to work for themselves. Sam Young, studying travel and tourism, psychology and Spanish at Worcester Sixth Form College, describes it as the British catching up with the entrepreneurial spirit seen on the other side of the Atlantic.

"This is the American dream our way," she says. "So many people are fed up of being in the rat race. Owning your own business is the way out of all that."

Sam was one of the students, all aged 16 and 17, taking part in an Enterprise Day at the college, producing an alternative guide to the sixth form for new students. One member of the winning team, Steve Knight, says many people of his age shared the entrepreneurial spirit and embraced the Young Enterprise initiatives.

"I want to go into business in the future so I want to learn the skills I need now," he says. "It's a chance to express your own feelings, show your own talents and make a lot of money at the same time."

Sam says people of her age had dreams of working independently. "Most people aspire to own their own business nowadays and a day like this shows the skills they need," she says. Founded in 1963, the charity Young Enterprise runs a range of business and enterprise education programmes for more than 280,000 young people each year and hopes to recruit students like these from Worcester.

Ian Terry, a volunteer member on the local Young Enterprise board and a competition judge, says events such as this inspired young people.

"So many prospective students are going for university courses with just their exams to show," he says.

"But with experience from Young Enterprise behind them it is often the one thing that differentiates them on an application form.

"What's great is that they are learning by doing."

Mr Terry said some of the companies set up by Young Enterprise were as good as the real thing. He says: "They create their own ideas, buy materials, put people in the role of director, sell shares and make the product, some of which have been very good."

The two teams in Worcester, Sam's Team and Jenny's Team had one day to produce their sixth form guide from scratch.

There were discussions about the cost of colour versus black and white, a jokey map warning prospective students about where `the jocks' congregate and whether they could get advertising from local driving instructors.

Jenny's Team won narrowly as judges decided that, in keeping with the brief, it was more `alternative'. Sam's team's product received plaudits too and may be adopted by the college for September.

The day was the brainchild of Steve Tallett, who goes into Worcester Sixth Form College one day a week, to pass on his knowledge after selling his own business.

A study by John Moores University in Liverpool discovered that entrepreneurs showed that they were all risk-takers, always believed they would succeed, and had confidence in their own ability, knew how to manage money and could constantly find ways around obstacles.

Looking at the evidence, these Worcester Sixth Form College students have got bright futures.