Little nippers have big business ideas
LITTLE nippers at Ovens NS had the Dragon’s Den appeal as fifth class colloborated on a range of innovations during their two-day Bizworld workshop.
Car registration-triggered electric gates, spyware garden gnomes and thumbprint bank payment activation were among the ideas formulated by the budding entrepreneurs
The ideas were then pitched to local Dragons, Michael O’Leary and Tom Purcell of the Ballincollig branch of Bank of Ireland, who are both committed supporters of Bizworld.
During the two-day Bizworld workshop, tutored by Margaret Barrett, the children split into groups, each developing their own mini enterprise.
Bizworld is a not-for-profit organisation, chaired by Gavin Duffy, that promotes entrepreneurship skills for children at fifth class level and is open for new schools to get involved.
It delivers simple workshops where pupils learn about money management and enterprise in a supportive and creative atmosphere.
Pupils are taken through the entire entrepreneurial cycle – from company formation and applying for jobs in their companies, to market research with younger classes in the school, and then designing, producing and marketing their business idea.
They learn about pitching for investment and get the opportunity to do so in real-life to a visiting Dragon who hears each company’s pitch and decides how many BizBucks to invest in their company.
Over 40,000 children have taken part in their free workshops around the country in the past two years, with more than 200 schools hosting programmes this year.
“Bizworld aims to address the lack of business education in primary schools and feed the students’ appetites for making commercial subject choices at second level,” said Bizworld CEO Fiona McKeon.
“Every secondary school subject is touched on at some point in the primary cycle except business, and if you haven’t been exposed to it, you are less likely to choose it as a discipline,” she said.
“One of the first things we ask at the start of a Bizworld workshop is whether students would pick business in secondary school – we usually get four to six hands at the start, and by the end of the two days it generally trebles,” she said.
The Bizworld experience is 50% entrepreneurship and business education and 50% personal growth empowerment, which enables confidence collaboration and team building.
“Some of the fantastic ideas we have seen over the past few months include a happy thoughts journal, a 50 cent tray for people who need a small amount of household essentials, gluten-free vending machines, a global warming awareness board game, a cycle safe indicator, a hair lice detection brush and a cattle break-out app,” she said.
The Bizworld experience is 50% entrepreneurship and business education and 50% personal growth empowerment, which enables confidence collaboration and team building.