Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery today announced the launch of a new challenge to help prepare young Western Australians to lead and innovate in our changing world.
The Minister's Innovation Challenge is part of the Career Learning Toolkit developed to address the critical need for career learning for students.
The challenge, facilitated by Generation Entrepreneur, is for Year 8 students and will be the first step in an ongoing immersive journey of design thinking and learning for WA public school students.
It will involve up to 20 teams of students using design thinking to develop innovative solutions to local problems they have identified, with their efforts supported by their school and a local industry mentor.
The inaugural challenge will run for four weeks in Term 4 this year, and schools are encouraged to register their expressions of interest during Term 3.
Each team's final pitch will be showcased online, and the three top ranked teams will receive cash prizes totalling $6,000.
For more information about the challenge, or for industry mentors looking to provide support, visit https://www.education.wa.edu.au/ministers-innovation-challenge.
As stated by Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery:
"The Minister's Innovation Challenge is a chance for students to engage meaningfully with experts to solve problems and gain the skills and knowledge they need to be ready for future learning, work and life.
"I encourage schools to register their interest to take part in this exciting opportunity that is specifically designed to give Year 8 students exposure to design learning.
"I also call on industry mentors with a background in start-ups or innovation to come forward and offer their valuable experience and support to young people involved in the challenge."
As stated by Innovation and ICT Minister Stephen Dawson:
"This is a really exciting program to support Western Australia's burgeoning innovation and ICT sector as it's preparing our young innovators to be future leaders.
"Western Australia is recognised as a world leader in innovation and automation and a recent report found our local industry is supporting around 60,000 jobs and generating around $11 billion in output a year.
"The Minister's Innovation Challenge for young students is vitally important for the sustainability and expansion of this industry in the future with the goal to create more jobs and diversify our economy."
