College entrepreneur winners
Entrepreneurship is alive and well at Ōtūmoetai College. Last month an enterprise named Nextus, the brainchild of four Year 13 Business students, won the first challenge in the annual Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) National Competition, not only at the regional level but also nationally out of 21 regional winners. The $250 prize money will be added to their business capital.
This year ten businesses (over 60 students) from Ōtūmoetai College are competing for some impressive regional and national awards and prizes.
The Competition is divided into Challenges, each of which focuses on a different aspect of business-building: product validation, The Pitch, product promotion and sales.
For this first challenge, product validation, Nextus made a prototype for their product. Rapid Reaction is a fast-paced card game where players must answer eight modern kiwiana related questions per card without hesitating or saying the sneaky list of forbidden words (such as ‘Yeah’, ‘Nah’, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Umm’, ‘Maybe’ etc.). The extremely positive responses the students received through their validation process has filled the four Year 13 students with confidence that this game will be a hit!
“We do things differently down here at the bottom of the world, so why shouldn’t our games reflect that,” says Baylee Dyer. Through sales of Rapid Reaction, they hope to make a positive change by rebuilding connections and quality time in a tech driven society between families and friends.
Ōtūmoetai College participates in the national Young Enterprise Scheme every year. The initiative helps young people get “Work Ready and World Ready” by teaching them how to set up and run their own businesses. Through the process, they learn many new skills including problem solving, resilience, teamwork, leadership, public speaking and decision making.
The second Challenge took place at the end of June and we wish all the businesses participating the very best with pitching their business ideas to a panel of expert judges.
Check out Nextus’s Instagram page @nextus.nz