Young Enterprise - Directors Training Day - March 2nd 2005
Ninety students from 8 Southland secondary schools took part in
this years full day directorship workshops. Each student decided on
a role that suited their personality types and then separated into
workshops such as Managing Directors, Communications, Financial,
Production, Sales and Marketing. Southland business owners
specialising in each of those particular areas ran the workshops.
Representatives from Action International, BDO Spicers, Quality
Foods Southland, McIntyre Dick and Partners and The Communication
Company, gave advice and guidance on how the students could fulfil
their positions when they began their YES companies for the 2005
programme.
After a creative brainstorming session delivered by Blair
Valentine from 'The Difference that makes the Difference' company,
the students were then issued an enterprise challenge which they
had two and a half hours to prepare for. The challenge this year
was presented by one of the schemes national sponsors, ACC.
Invercargill's ACC representative Nic Miller explained to the kids
how over the 2003/04 year, 1,440,003 minor injury accidents,
103,002 moderate to serious injuries and 1070 deaths occurred and
these were mostly around the home and the majority in the summer
months. The challenge 'To create an innovative product or service
to enhance safety in summer' gave the student's plenty of scope to
be imaginative. Products such as 'Fuzz busters' (electric charges
sent to you if you start to nod off when you are driving), modified
step ladders which included suction cups that attached to walls,
escalator barrier bars that shot out if you started to trip, hydro
packs that fitted to car seats, exercise videos for workplaces,
breathalisers attached to ignition starters which if intoxicated
the car would not start, were just some of the options the twelve
teams come up with. The students had to sell their product by way
of a 3-minute presentation that had to include a narrated mime.
This made for a hilarious but very interactive participation by
every student who attended.
Young Enterprise Scheme National Director Mark Wilson, along
with Enterprise NZ Trust CEO Donna Dentice, attended Mark made
comment that Southland's students had come up with the most
inventive and courageous products so far. Donna was very impressed
with the students initiative and enthusiasm, and said how lucky
Southland was to have such a large pool of students showing such
entrepreneurship and confidence.
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