Schools teams to tackle global business issues

Teenagers will be challenged to come up with innovative solutions to a worldwide business issue at the annual International Enterprise in Action event hosted by the University at the Albany campus from Sunday.

Social Development and Youth Affairs Minister Paula Bennett, a Massey graduate, will officially launch this year's competition. Fashion designer and entrepreneur Annah Stretton will be guest speaker.

More than 70 year-12 and year-13 school pupils from around the country will take part in the three-day event organised by the Young Enterprise Trust. It includes Global Enterprise Challenge and regional heats for the FedEx International Trade Challenge.

Participating schools are from Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wanganui, Manawatu, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

College of Humanities and Social Sciences Albany Regional Director Professor Paul Spoonley will host the competition launch on the University's behalf. Professor Spoonley says supporting innovation is one of the University’s priorities. “This competition will enable pupils to experience the skills that are needed to take an idea to commercial success,” he says. “It is important to equip young people with the skills, creativity and enthusiasm to help New Zealand become a hub for innovation.”

The University is providing a panel of specialists in marketing, finance, packaging, product development and food technology to provide expertise to the nine teams. The teams will be mentored by representatives from ASB, Action Coach, Action Mail, Renaissance, Draft FCB, The Edge, Russell Investments, PKF Accountants and APN.

The teams spend Sunday on the campus competing in the FedEx International Trade Challenge sharpening up their skills. The top 10 students are nominated by their peers and mentors and six will go on to represent New Zealand in the FedEx/JA International Trade Challenge competition in Singapore in August.

From Monday, the teams have 24 hours to prepare their business plan for a new product or service to address a topical issue in the Global Enterprise Challenge. Sir David Levene, who has an honorary doctorate from Massey, is on the panel of judges that helps select the winning team, which will compete against 20 other countries in the global final.

Last year New Zealand's Global Enterprise Challenge was won by a team that proposed commercialisation of a device called The Granulator, which mulched food scraps into dried feed for livestock in Mozambique.

Every participant in the challenge will receive a scholarship worth $1000 from the University's College of Business and the winning team members will each receive $2000 scholarships.