An annual initiative to boost entrepreneurial skills in schools has attracted its biggest pool of participants and industry mentors.
The Minister’s Innovation Challenge this year selected teams of Year 8 students from 41 schools, the largest cohort since the program was launched four years ago.
Spanning over six weeks, the students had guidance from entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into tangible solutions.
About 40 mentors from various industries were involved in the challenge, organised by Bloom, based in Crawley.
Bloom program and community coordinator Brandon White-Harris said sourcing entrepreneurs in Perth to get on board was no easy feat with this year’s large cohort of participating schools.
“The pool of experienced mentorship can be tricky, being in such a small city, but we did manage to pull together around 40 mentors, which was a bit of work on our part,” he said.
“But we have pretty solid connections, because Bloom is pretty established in the innovation ecosystem.”
The top five pitches were awarded $35,000 in grants this week, with Coodanup College taking the biggest share of $15,000 over its team’s Hot Dog lead invention.
The dog leash was designed to keep pets safe during hot weather, using heat sensitive colour technology to provide a clear visual warning
“Looking ahead, our goal is to make a real impact on safety and wellbeing of dogs, especially in warmer climates or during hot seasons,” Coodanup College Year 8 student Angel Jones said.
“We hope our colour changing lead becomes a must for our pet owners, helping them recognise when it is time to take a break or change their route to avoid hot surfaces that could harm their dogs in the long term.
“We would like to expand the product by creating other dog accessories like a vibrating lead for colourblind or hard of seeing people.”
Mr White-Harris, who mentored three schools this year, said the partnership between schools and industry was important for cultivating entrepreneurship.
“For something like business, I believe it's really not something that you can teach in a classroom,” he said.
“It's something [that’s] project-based learning and experience-based learning, and it's not something you can read in a textbook.”
Education Minister Sabine Winton said the state government wanted to build partnerships with industry, using their expertise to mentor young people.
“Because it's one thing for teachers to work through these processes, but it's quite another thing when you have someone from within various industries with those real life experiences to really inspire the students,” she told Business News.
“This was the biggest turnout in terms of 41 schools from right around the state, and so that then also drives more people wanting to be a part of the program and offer their expertise and experience from a range of different industries or sectors.
“It could be small businesses and startups, or it could be bigger industry organisations wanting to participate and build that relationship between schools and industry.”
