Cathcart High wins international prize

CATHCART High School stood head and shoulders above the rest to claim the title Best Business Idea in the School Enterprise Challenge, trumping almost 6 000 schools from 110 countries to claim the overall business prize.

Last year, more than 5 900 schools took part in the School Enterprise Challenge.

And it was recently announced that Cathcart High School took home the $250 prize (about R30 000) for its Dancing Taste Buds Café.

The School Enterprise Challenge is an international programme which supports pupils and teachers to plan, set up and run a school business.

The challenge was developed through partnership between Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF) and Wessa (the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa).

Cathcart High School pupils and teachers attended the EEESAY workshops and developed their business idea for a coffee shop called Dancing Taste Buds Café.

EEESAY – a division of the Enterprise Challenge – provides an opportunity to gain practical business skills by setting up and running an educational and environmentally sustainable enterprise at various schools over a period of three years.

EEESAY project manager Sue Spies said: “What makes Cathcart High School’s business idea stand out is how they applied creative thinking around how to combine using waste to meet the needs of their coffee shop in using empty two-litre bottles to make ottoman chairs for their customers to sit on.

“Through meeting the needs of the business (furniture) learners have met another need (capital) at the same time: by making more ottomans than they needed, they have enough to sell.”

Spies said the businesses this year ranged from a community gym in Belize to a vegetable farm in Rwanda, with everything in between.

Cathcart High School’s project coordinator, Fiona Amos Brown, said: “We are feeling ecstatic upon hearing that we won Best Business Idea in the Schools Enterprise Challenge.

“We are inspired to continue making a difference as we guide learners to continue persevering in their business ventures. We would like to encourage other participants to continue striving to fulfil their dreams and not give up in the face of adversity.

“We all have amazing potential; the secret is to believe it.”

Coordinator for the School Enterprise Challenge in South Africa Susannah Morcowitz said: “Learners and teachers at Cathcart High School have made huge strides in entrepreneurial education this year.

“Winning the best business idea prize and competing against 6 000 schools around the world is a true testament to all their hard work.”