Students take on startup scene

Educators have opened classroom doors to new learning possibilities via a program that connects industry with students in a competition to create their own technology startup.

Three years ago, Just Start IT co-creator and managing director Lainey Weiser was tasked with attracting Western Australian high school graduates to Curtin University’s school of information systems.

A 20-week program that teaches students about the business of startups, Just Start IT was developed in 2014 after Ms Weiser appropriated the lean methodology behind global tech hub Silicon Valley and applied it in a school setting.

“I realised you can’t lock kids down for 48 hours, give them a Red Bull and a coffee and expect them to survive,” Ms Weiser told Business News.

“You can’t just talk at students.

“I wanted to create a program that actually showcased to them the marriage between business technology and entrepreneurship.”

The Curtin-sponsored and curriculum-endorsed program teaches high school students from year nine upwards how to create and take to market their own technology startup.

Just Start IT assigns an industry mentor to each school for a one to two-hour session per week to assist students to build their technology idea into a product they can pitch against other schools.

Ms Weiser believed that, by partnering teachers with industry, students could experience an aspect of the real world and be better equipped for an evolving jobs market.

“Just Start IT puts the world into young people’s hands by building job creators, not job dependants,” Ms Weiser said.

So far this year more than 50 schools across WA and one from New South Wales participated in the program; a total of 2,000 students and 300 teams, 11 of which were chosen for the gala event final to pitch for the Just Start IT $5,000 first prize.

Several other awards, including full build packages, were also up for grabs in a prize pool worth more than $100,000, which places Just Start IT at number 10 on this year’s list of Startup Organisations, Places and Programs.

Students were evaluated on seven criteria: concept novelty; strength of validation; disruptive use of technology; minimal viable product display; costs; revenue streams; and market strategy.

The 2016 panel of 12 judges featured leaders from digital agencies, public relations firms, startup companies, and government, including WA Senator Linda Reynolds.

Business News chief executive Charlie Gunningham has been a judge since the program’s inception and believes it is a step toward preparing students to enter a world that has become increasingly technology driven.

“If coding, pitching or developing a business is not on the curriculum, how are teenagers going to learn this?” Mr Gunningham said.

“Some of the finalists’ pitches were equal, if not better, than most adult pitches I have seen.”

This was the first year in the program’s history that industry contributors invested in finalists’ ideas to scale to market.

Perth software company Lateral invested $20,000 worth of developing hours to Sacred Heart College team’s app idea, Pet Topia, a platform that connects families with pet sitters.

Lateral chief executive and 2016 40under40 winner Tommy Shin, who was also on this year’s judging panel, said the investment would include a proof of concept app and a pitch deck, along with further mentoring.

“The students will get their concept in vision giving them a head start for their future,” Mr Shin said.

“We need to have more entrepreneurs due to the fast pace world we live in.”

The City of Wanneroo has also recognised the program’s value and sponsored two schools within its shire to participate in the program.

In addition to technology partners Secure2Go and Community2Go, the council has backed Joseph Banks Secondary College’s Get Work Network team with a $25,000 investment to build the app, which links local employers to inexperienced high school students looking for work.

Two teams from Como Secondary College were selected to pitch at the iAwards, Australia’s leading digital innovation showcase, in Melbourne later this month.

This year, Northern Beaches Christian School from NSW was invited to compete in the Just Start IT program. It won $5,000 first prize for its party-planning app, which Ms Weiser said indicated the program was ready to go national.

The Just Start IT program is also being trialled as a VET program for Certificate I, II and III in business and Certificate I in IT.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia has recently partnered with the program to help facilitate growth and enlist more mentors.

“We don’t want education to stop in the classroom, we want it to extend beyond,” Ms Weiser said.

“We all need to sit up and realise kids regurgitating facts at teachers just doesn’t work anymore.”