Council helping to future proof Ipswich teenagers

15 November 2018

Ipswich City Council wants to “future proof” teenagers by transforming them from high school students into cutting-edge, socially conscious entrepreneurs.

The Advancing Regional Innovation Program (ARIP), led by council, is working in partnership with Future Anything, a unique entrepreneurial pathway to equip Year 9 students with the ability to start their own social enterprise through its national program.

ARIP has also partnered with STEMPunks to support increased STEM capability skilling for technology-based jobs of the future and provide entrepreneurial design thinking. STEM education is the learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Council, through ARIP, is offering schools in the Ipswich and West Moreton (Lockyer Valley, Somerset, Scenic Rim) region the opportunity to sign up for the 2019 program. There will be matching funding for the first nine schools to register before 14 December.

Future Anything puts students in the driver’s seat of entrepreneurship, challenging young people to come up with their own innovative enterprise solutions to tackle some of the world’s greatest problems.

Using project-based learning as the educational vehicle, Future Anything interconnects with the school's Term 2 curriculum and assessment instruments with a fully-resourced future-focussed curriculum that is aligned to both the Year 9 English or Year 9 Business Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards.

Students will delve deep into understanding the world around them to design their own innovative, scalable and sustainable business solutions that also make a difference in the world, before pitching their ideas in their own school-based ‘Shark Tank’ event.

Winners then have the chance to follow through to state and national finals to secure funding to take their idea out of the classroom and into the real world. State finalists also secure automatic selection in the Future Anything Youth Accelerator, a purpose-built support program.

In the 2018 Future Anything program, Springfield Central State High School Year 9 student Tanieka Booth-McNeill won the grand finale, securing $10,000 in funding and support.

For further information, contact council’s ARIP lead Maria Baker by email: [email protected].

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