Cohort 3 of the Ideas Challenge takes flight with 50 teams from 14 schools🛫

We're excited to share that our Term 3 Ideas Challenge (IC) has just kicked off, with 50 teams representing 14 schools being invited to participate!🤩

In a nutshell, the Ideas Challenge is an online after school program where high school students from Years 7-12 benefit from a mix of live instructor-led sessions and self-paced learning content via Google Classroom. There's no cost to students, but it's a competitive application process to earn a spot. So congrats to all the - roughly 121 - students who just made it into Cohort 3!

All kinds of ideas are welcome, and the program helps students build a fully-fledged startup pitch while unlocking Macquarie University-issued microcredentials along the way. 

Let's jump into this program and some insights from the first Zoom call we held last night!

Here are some of the initial data we've put together about our third IC cohort👇

The schools represented include: Aurora College, Australian Christian College, Carlingford High School, Castle Hill High School, Cherrybrook Technology High School, Killara High School, Knox Grammar School, North Sydney Boys High School, North Sydney Girls High School, Pymble Ladies College, Ravenswood, Redlands School, William Clarke College, and Willoughby Girls High School.

With our help every step of the way, participating students are completing three voluntary extension tasks; one for each module on offer: Planning, Prototyping and Pitching. We've just kicked off the Planning module, with assessment 1 due at 8pm next Tuesday night.

These are marked on a pass/fail basis, with all passing students receiving microcredentials from Macquarie University and Young Wisdom to recognise their efforts throughout the program.🏅

Teams that go on to unlock all three digital certificates and end up in our Top-10 will be invited to pitch in person at Macquarie University Incubator on 25 September. 

All teams/families are welcome to attend that event, which doubles up as our end-of-term celebration recognising everyone's hard work throughout the program!

First online workshop

We had a great time kicking off the program via Zoom with 40-50 students attending our first online session of the program. In addition to stepping through the Challenge in detail and all of the resources needed to successfully complete assessment 1, James and I also asked questions of our audience like, "What does the word 'startup' mean to you?’ (see the handy word cloud below!)

It's important to define 'startup' as we tend to take a much broader view than that of the exclusively tech-based, "global from day one" Silicon Valley-inspired dogma.

Of course we're very happy working with tech startups, but equally so working with small business ideas, services, physical products, not-for-profits, initiatives and events of all descriptions; so long as they are looking to solve problems and create value in a sustainable manner.

Another somewhat loaded term with many positive and negative connotations is 'Entrepreneur'. We like to see what students come back with on this, and last night's responses were excellent to see: 

This led to a very important discussion about what the Ideas Challenge is all about. We help students build the skillsets and mindsets of problem-solvers, who can not only spot opportunities for change but also see way(s) forward, and imagine their role in making that change happen in a sustainable (often commercial) manner.

This is intended to help build our students' sense of agency, optimism about the future, ability to deal with ambiguity, commercial acumen, and encourages a tendency to collaborate and sense check their ideas with others before becoming attached to them.

There will be challenges for anyone who chooses to apply these skills to a real startup venture. So we were glad to see 'resilience' and 'determination' on this list.

This isn't at all about 'becoming the next [Insert Billionaire Name]'... This is about building the skills and confidence needed to thrive in a complex future full of challenges and opportunity.

We also make it very clear that there are many places that seek out these skillsets and mindsets, including universities and employers! So it's never about rushing into being an entrepreneur. But certainly being able to use entrepreneurial thinking in various contexts and any future career path.

Module 1: Planning

Another thing the IC promises is to introduce students to concepts they probably haven't encountered before, and may not even encounter at university (if that's where they intend to go).

Module 1 used Lean Startup Methodology and specifically the Lean Canvas as the primary 'planning' tool, given its accessibility and focus on real-world validation (prioritising feedback from potential users and customers over our own ideas, opinions and biases as founders).

This is one way we as entrepreneurs learn to be a little more methodical, rational and data-driven through what can be an incredibly ambiguous, emotional and tumultuous startup journey.

We demonstrated the process to complete assessment 1 live on the call (for our favourite hypothetical startup, KidKode) and provided the completed templates as exemplars of sorts to help students succeed in their first assessment task.

And then of course, as an innovative team trying to be more data-driven ourselves, we had to ask for some feedback:

Not bad for the 20 students who were still online 1.5 hours into the call on a Thursday night!

We are so excited to see how the cohort goes through their first assessment task as they work their way towards the pitch night.

For any enquiries about the Ideas Challenge or the Secondary Schools Program, you can always contact us here:  hello@youngwisdom.com.au or incubator@mq.edu.au