New Zealand’s Brightest Teen Entrepreneurs Selected For 48-hour Business Challenge

From Friday 1st - Sunday 3rd July, 60 of New Zealand’s brightest young entrepreneurs will participate in The Young Enterprise ‘Entrepreneurs in Action’ (EIA) business competition. In 48 hours, the secondary students will tackle two back-to-back business challenges and harness their innovative thinking to solve real-world business problems.

Both challenges will require teamwork, creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset and will focus on real world problems with an environmental and te ao Māori focus. EIA is designed to develop students’ soft skills which are becoming increasingly sought after by employers. Covid-19 has shown us that now, more than ever, this is critical for our young people as they plan their future pathways. This authentic learning experiencing will support them through their next steps post-secondary school whether that be moving into tertiary study, employment or continuing their entrepreneurial journey.

The first challenge of the weekend, the Ministry for the Environment Challenge will be issued by the Ministry on Friday morning. The students will then have until 6.30pm to complete their response to the challenge before pitching to a panel pf judges. "We are excited to be involved in this year's EIA event. Rangatahi are our future leaders and innovators and having the opportunity to engage and support their creativity through an environmentally themed business challenge is a real privilege. We can't wait to see what ideas the participants come up with!" Vicky Robertson, Secretary for the Environment.

The second challenge of the weekend will then be issued by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise on Friday night with pitches occurring on Sunday morning with winners announced shortly after. Over the course of the weekend students will be mentored by 1 of 10 leading organisations such as IBM, Sustainability Trust and Fujitsu. On Saturday the teams will work from their company host premise experiencing firsthand what it’s like working in a office environment.

“Young people are becoming increasingly aware of social and environmental issues facing society and the need to problem solve to find innovative solutions and EIA is the perfect opportunity for students to harness this thinking explains Terry Shubkin, Chief Excitement Officer at YES.

Participants in EIA were chosen from the 4000+ participants of The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme that spans the entire school year. Of those 4000+ students, 189 applied to compete in the event with only the top 60 students being selected from across New Zealand.

Corporate Hosts:

• Asia New Zealand Foundation
• Fujitsi
• Creative HQ & Hitch
• IBM
• Mevo
• New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
• Ministry for Primary Industries
• Reason
• Sharesies
• Sustainability Trust

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