WA public school students have been presented with a new challenge to help prepare them to lead and innovate in a changing world.
The Minister’s Innovation Challenge is part of the career learning toolkit developed to address the need for career learning for students.
The challenge targets Year 8 students and is to be the first step in a continuing immersive journey of design thinking and learning.
Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery said that up to 20 teams of students would use design thinking to develop innovative solutions to local problems they had identified, with their efforts supported by their school and a local industry mentor.
“The inaugural challenge will run for four weeks in Term Four this year, and schools are encouraged to register their expressions of interest during Term Three,” Ms Ellery said.
“Each team’s final pitch will be showcased online, and the three top-ranked teams will receive cash prizes totaling $6,000.”
She said that as well as encouraging students to register their interest “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”.
Minister for Innovation and ICT, Stephen Dawson said the State was recognised as a world leader in innovation and automation and a recent report found local industry was supporting around 60,000 jobs and generating around $11 billion in output a year.
“The Minister’s Innovation Challenge is important for the sustainability and expansion of this industry in the future with the goal to create more jobs and diversify our economy,” Mr Dawson said.
