The School Enterprise Challenge is a free educational programme that teaches business and life skills.
It supports teachers and students to plan and set up real businesses at their school.
From coming up with your own business idea to writing a business plan and actually launching your school business, we’ll support you the whole way!
COVID update: The School Enterprise Challenge 2021 can be adapted to any context, whether you will be teaching online or in-person. Whatever your situation, we will support you to keep your students engaged and empower them through practical learning!
There are so many reasons to take part in the School Enterprise Challenge!
It is a practical programme which enables young people to develop skills which are not covered in the classroom (experiential learning).
It also provides teachers with real-life examples to bring their teaching to life and allows them to develop new teaching practices (experiential teaching).
All participants in the programme are part of a global community of enterprising schools which provides lots of inspiration and is a place for collaboration and sharing of best practices.
Benefits for young people
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Get practical experience running a real business
Develop entrepreneurial skills
Creativity
Analysis
Financial management
Growth mindset
Develop key life skills
Communications
Teamwork
Leadership
Problem solving
Be part of a global movement of young entrepreneurs!
Benefits for teachers
EXPERIENTIAL TEACHING
Get access to a wide variety of teaching materials
Business guides with explanations + activities
Explainer videos
Mini-competitions: ready-made challenges for your students
Learn about business (this has many benefits in your personal life!)
Ability to bring academic subjects to life through real-life examples
Develop new teaching techniques
Boost your CV
Gain recognition and have the chance to win prizes
"For teachers, the School Enterprise Challenge creates a nice bond with students, different to our normal relationship. They see us as bringing something very practical which I think they enjoy!"
- Participating teacher in Uganda
The School Enterprise Challenge is open to any school in any country.
You can register for free at any time and each school can make it work for their own calendar.
The timeline below will help you to plan your participation in a way that suits YOU!
Please note this is a suggested timeline to give you an idea of how long each step takes.
You do not need to follow this timeline exactly. Make it work for you!
Submission dates
Participants can submit any completed template (Business Idea, Business Plan or Annual Report) at any of the following submission dates:
Wednesday 21st July 2021
Saturday 21st August 2021
Sunday 21st November 2021
All submissions received by Sunday 21st November 2021 will be reviewed in early 2022 to determine eligibility for Award Level Certificates and prizes.
How to make it work for you
Here are 4 top tips for teachers taking part in the School Enterprise Challenge:
Tip 1: Get to know the educational materials
We encourage teachers to register their school and familiarise themselves with the content of the educational materials before gathering the team of students. It's always good to know what to expect before you start!
Tip 2: Get support from your colleagues
We recommend having permission from your school management before registering and having at least one other teacher who could support you with running the School Enterprise Challenge at your school. Involving more teachers makes it easier to manage the programme and adds to the richness of the experience!
Tip 3: Plan your participation
Look at your school calendar, think about when your school holidays and exam periods are, and plan accordingly!
Tip 4: Get up and running quickly
Step 1 (coming up with a Business Idea) and Step 2 (creating a Business Plan) can be done quite quickly. In fact, many teams complete the first two steps in under two months. The quicker you complete these first two steps, the sooner you can take on Step 3 (launching and running the business and completing an Annual Report) which is the most fun part of the programme and also the section where the most learning and skills acquisition happens!
There is more than USD $28,000 worth of prizes available for the best entries in the School Enterprise Challenge 2021!
The School Enterprise Challenge is open to all schools from all countries, including: pre-primary schools, primary schools, secondary schools and technical/vocational colleges. Please note that universities are not eligible to take part.
By accepting our terms and conditions and entering into the School Enterprise Challenge you allow Teach A Man To Fish to use any photographs or videos that you have shared with us in our own publications and social media and you confirm that you have consent from the children featured in those photographs/videos and their parents/guardian or the NGO responsible for them (if required by local law) to use those photographs or videos.
The final deadline for consideration for prizes in the 2021 edition of the School Enterprise Challenge is Sunday 21st November 2021. Only entries received before this date will be considered. Entries received after this date will be considered for the 2022 edition of the programme.
