ENTREPRENEUR Alan Sugar may well find his next apprentice among students at the City Academy in Bristol.

Pupils at the Lawrence Hill school have been taking part in an Apprentice-style competition, putting their skills in selling and bartering to the test.

The Year 9 and 10 students have joined forces with students from the academy's partner school in Spain, Vistasul Secondary School in Seville, to ensure not only were their business skills being honed but their language techniques were being perfected too.

They have already visited Seville where they were given the task of selling souvenirs from Bristol to their peers – using only Spanish.

The competition culminated in a trading day where students used planned price strategies to try to sell the most items and turn a profit.

Now it's the turn of the Spanish students who will fly in to Bristol on Monday ready to use their English skills to sell their home country's souvenirs to academy students.

Their visit coincides with a language and culture celebration evening at the academy where the 30 Spanish visitors will entertain guests with Flamenco dancing.

Katie Friedman, programmer leader for languages, said the trip to Seville had been a success, with the number of students taking Spanish next year increasing considerably.

She said: "The event is an excellent opportunity for pupils to use Spanish for real purposes. It's also a chance to get unique work experience in international business.

"Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world so learning the language can really help increase job opportunities and makes going on holiday a lot more fun.

"It's great learning Spanish in the classroom but the visit to Spain put students into real situations and nothing can beat that for helping perfect language skills."