ENTERPRISING college students will put their business skills to the test by staging a charity ball for a borough cause on Friday.

Funds raised from the extravanganza at the Village Urban Resort in Castle Gate, Dudley, will be donated to Stourbridge’s Mary Stevens Hospice.

The students from Halesowen College were challenged to stage the ball as part of their assignments and have already come up with the goods.

Tickets cost £25 for the black tie event and despite slow sales, the students have already covered their costs.

At the same time, the youngsters will auctioning off 20 prizes donated by borough businesses ranging from digital cameras and coffee makers to spray tanning parties and a round of golf.

Student Kimberley Hamilton said: “We realise times are very difficult for people but we’ve already managed to raise enough money to pay for the event.

“We set ourselves a target of £250 for charity and we should easily achieve that through the auction alone.

“It was our idea to stage the auction and we used our contacts to obtain the prizes, where everyone we asked was remarkably forthcoming.

“There’s only seven people in our group, which meets once a week, so we’ve been planning the ball since last September.

“Other groups had different assignments like staging a table-top sale and an Irish night.

“We wanted to do something a bit more extravagent in the hope we could raise more money.

“However, we could still do with a few more ticket sales.”

Anyone interested in attending can contact Kimberley on 07505 561531.