NSW Government — startup.business

Bringing Entrepreneurial Learning in Action to Regional NSW Schools

The NSW Government recognises that when it comes to supporting secondary students in their journey to become job-ready, industry plays a crucial role. That is why it has joined forces with startup.business with support from Training Services NSW Regional Industry Education Partnerships (RIEP) officers to build stronger networks and increase partnerships to boost student awareness of career opportunities in their local region.

"Entrepreneurship... The only way to teach it, is by doing it. This opportunity allows students to be engaged in the process where the true entrepreneurial spirit is explored. When someone says 'no, it won't work' the entrepreneur says 'yes, it will'.

Hon. Geoff Lee

Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education, NSW

The Regional Industry Education Partnerships (RIEP) is a NSW Government initiative that strengthens connections between local industry and secondary school communities and supports students in planning their future career pathways by:

building partnerships between employers and local schools
supporting employers to engage with schools and share their expectations for their future workforce
helping students develop the skills they need to get a job; and
strengthening links between what is learned at school and what is needed in the workplace.

The NSW Government are funding 21 schools across regional and rural NSW to run the startup.business program in curriculum to Stage 5 Commerce OR Stage 5 Geography students for the Local Schools for Local Industry initiative commencing in Term 2 and 3, 2020. Students will focus on identifying industry challenges in their local region and then build and pitch a business idea that provides a sustainable solution. It is a highly engaging program that also involves mentoring and worksite visits with local businesses.

The 2020 program includes schools from Albury to Menindee to Griffith and we are more than excited to be able to share their entrepreneurial journey’s.

The schools involved in the 2020 initiative are:

– Calrossy Anglican School

– Denison College, Kelso High Campus

– Heritage Christian School

– Gorokan High School

– Great Lakes College, Tuncurry Campus

– Great Lakes College, Forster Campus

– Guyra Central School

– Maclean High School

– Menindee Central School

– Monaro High School

– Murray High School

– Parkes High School

– St Brigid’s Catholic College, Lake Munmorah

– St John’s College, Dubbo

– St Joseph’s College, Lochinvar

– St Peter’s Catholic College, Tuggerah

– The Henry Lawson High School

– Trinity Catholic College, Goulburn

– Warialda High School

– Warners Bay High School

– Xavier High School

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Applications are now closed and open for 2021 soon. Interested schools should head to the NSW Government website to asses their eligibility and apply to receive the funding. Two schools from each of the targeted RIEP regions across the state will receive full funding for program delivery.

“We chose to deliver the ‘learning in action’ entrepreneurial program as part of the extra-curricular activities as it is all about recognising a problem in the industry and developing an entrepreneurial mind-set; an edge we wanted to give our students to prepare them for the future work to be innovators, leaders and problem solvers.”

Gavin Saul

Agriculture Teacher, Kempsey High School, NSW

"A lot of people think of commerce education as being stuck in a classroom with a textbook in front of you, so to have a program where we can give students hands-on, real-life practices is just fabulous."

Samantha Eddy HSIE Teacher, St John's College Dubbo, NSW

Below is a video of our 2020 cohort of teachers undertaking their Startup.Business Professional Learning Workshop. This is where they were able to gain first hand experience in coming up with their own brilliant ideas, pitching in a competition format and gaining valuable insight into what they will be delivering to their students across New South Wales.