Students show off their wares!

The entrepreneurial skills of North Shore secondary school students took centre stage at the weekend as they showed off their own innovative products at a Regional Trade Fair.

Twenty-three North Shore and Rodney student companies, all part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), joined the annual fair where 72 YES companies launched and sold their products to the public. 

KingsWay School’s Gear’d company took out the coveted ‘best stall’ prize for their imaginative and eye-catching stall marketing their retractable headphones for MP3 players. Their tangle-free headphones were hugely popular amongst the other students and visitors to the Trade Fair.

Other North Shore and Rodney teams products ranged from a dog collar with inbuilt lead to a curriculum-based maths game for primary school students.

Terry Hoskins, chief executive of Enterprise North Shore who facilitates the YES programme in the Northern region, is delighted with the response to the Trade Fair.

“Our student companies are already showing immense innovative business skills which will continue to be fostered through the YES programme. To have so many teams marketing their products at this year’s Trade Fair is a wonderful achievement.”

Earlier this month North Shore YES students, Paul Minors (Rangitoto College) and Talman Madsen (Long Bay College), hit the headlines when they finished first and second at the FedEx Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge in Singapore.

-Ends-

About Young Enterprise Scheme:

The Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), a school-based business programme, runs internationally and in New Zealand secondary schools at years 12/13. It fosters tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, giving them the opportunity to form a company, create a business plan, and produce goods or services to sell. Students learn all aspects of running a business including budgeting, decision making, identifying and managing risk, market research, marketing, selling, and annual financial reporting. Companies are liquidated at the end of the YES year.

For more information contact:

Ainslie Stevenson

Communications Administrator

Enterprise North Shore

Ph: (09) 414-1343; Mob: (027) 500 8592

E-mail: comms@ens.org.nz

See also: www.ens.org.nz