20 May 2002 Media Statement

$1.7m boost for youth enterprise

Young people are the key to our economic future, says Jim Anderton.

Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton today announced funding for ten projects to stimulate business success among young people.

The ten projects have been collectively awarded $1.7m by Industry New Zealand’s through the Enterprise Culture and Skills Activities Fund.

The Fund has been set up to help develop an education culture that encourages positive attitudes and skills for entrepreneurship, business growth, and business success.

“The response to the programme has been extremely positive with 83 applications representing all regions of New Zealand,” says Jim Anderton. “The ten projects receiving funding will kickstart our efforts to build a truly enterprising culture, especially among young people, and positively influence the lives of all those involved for the good of not only their own communities, but all New Zealanders.”

Projects to receive funding are:

- Role-playing for Success - two sets of curriculum-linked role-playing modules that introduce the concept of entrepreneurial behaviour and business skills to secondary students

- Teengirls in Technology - a national educational programme designed to increase the profile of technology-based business careers for young women

- Community Improvement through Youth - a six-month scheme that promotes the development of enterprise skills, involving implementation of community projects, amongst high school students and recent school leavers who are unemployed, in Hawke’s Bay

- The Influence of Young Enterprise - a research project that will help determine whether entrepreneurs can be identified at an early age, and to collate and celebrate success stories from past students

- Business High School - establishment of an international and entrepreneurial business curriculum course for high school students based in Onehunga High School in Auckland

- Student Technological Innovation Incubation - the development of school resource packages that focus on technology-based innovation, for use in schools through out New Zealand.

- PartnersNZ - to expand and strengthen a programme helping businesses achieve innovative solutions by accessing the talents of young people in their communities

- Young Entrepreneur Programme to train school leavers and unemployed young people in Northland to become enterprising and successful self-employed business owners

- Interactive Web Business Game - to be developed in Canterbury for high school students throughout the country

- Funding will also be given to enable an Auckland group of gifted teenagers to represent New Zealand at the International Future Problem Solving Finals in the USA.

Jim Anderton congratulated the award recipients and said full reports on the benefits of the activities would be compiled and results evaluated by Industry NZ.

Educational initiatives are the key focus of the funding programme and the Ministry of Education was consulted to ensure none of the projects was being duplicated or in conflict with its own programmes.

Independent expert assessors on the judging panel, were:

- Dame Georgina Kirby (Maori Women’s Development Inc),

- Ali Boscwijk (CEO Arts Marketing in Nelson)

- John Cunningham (CEO Caltech Capital Partners)

- Graeme Marshall (Ministry of Education)

- Neville Jordan (Businessman)

The Industry New Zealand’s Enterprise Culture and Skills Activities Fund is administered by The Royal Society of New Zealand.

The second round of Enterprise Culture and Skills Activities funding closed on May 10th 2002. Successful applicants of the second funding round will be announced at a later date when the selection process has been completed.

ENDS

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