Students devise next big thing

NEW programs in entrepreneurship are trying to encourage the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates among Townsville youth.

Townsville City Council, through the Smart Precinct NQ, brought two innovative education initiatives, Future Anything and the Australian School of Entrepreneurship, to the city yesterday.

Students from seven regional high schools participated in the Big Ideas Youth Challenge at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

Students from Thuringowa State High School won the $3000 Global Impact Award for their business idea of a “helper book” app to help young people experiencing domestic violence.

Mayor Jenny Hill said the council wanted to inspire young people to think about how they could develop skills for the future.

“The reality is programming, the development of

apps, looking at problems in the community and how they might be able to solve it, that’s what this is all about,” Cr Hill said.

“Smart Precinct is not just about adults coming up with ideas.

“If you look at Facebook and some of the apps that are out there, they were all developed by people in their teens and early 20s. Someone out

there could be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates.”

Smart Precinct chief operating officer Nicole Lucas said the Big Ideas Youth Challenge was an opportunity to teach young people about entrepreneurship.

Ms Lucas said the one-day program was delivered by specialist education group Future Anything whose schoolbased Activate entrepreneurship program would operate in North Queensland high schools next year, partly funded by Smart Precinct NQ.

“What we are trying to do is get young people excited about entrepreneurship,” Ms Lucas said.

“Entrepreneurs are quite agile, they can solve problems really quickly, they see opportunities in the market and they are job creators.”

Smart Precinct NQ managing director Matt Steine said programs like this had not been as accessible for young people in Townsville as in the capital cities.

“It’s really important that, with the investment that the council has made to bring partners like Future Anything and the Australian School of Entrepreneurship to Townsville, we make these things accessible to Townsville youth,” Mr Steine said.

“We look forward to doing another event like this next year, hopefully, with even more young people and more ideas.”