Business Is Booming in Year 9
Year 9 Start Your Own Business classes had the opportunity to take their products to market this week, after months of hard work generating product ideas, creating prototypes, conducting market research, producing products for sale, marketing them and taking risks to achieve a profit.
The course is a year-long elective that students in Year 9 can select. A large component of the course is providing students with an opportunity to start a small business. The course has been designed to empower students to make their own decisions about their business and how they want to run it. Through starting their own business, students are provided with opportunities to develop skills that will prepare them for life after school.
Employers are looking for students who have more than just knowledge, they are looking for young creative minds with skills that will allow them to effectively communicate, collaborate and create new ideas that can have an instant impact on an organisation. Students in Year 9 Start Your Own Business are provided with many opportunities to develop these skills.
Through providing a supportive environment that fosters a student’s creativity and supports them through the failures, successes, and learnings from starting their own businesses, students in this course are preparing themselves for life after school.
The final component of this project is selling their products at the market stall at school. The girls will be donating half of their profits to charity.
Here are a few insights from students in the course:
“From this task I have learnt the importance of being organised. We were still producing products until the night before our market day stall. If I was to do this task again, I would make sure our group used our time more effectively. Our stall could have had a much better result if we were fully prepared and organised for the day.” Bella Morrison
“Throughout this experience I have learnt many skills. One of the biggest skills I have learnt is marketing, it was a crucial part of our business. This subject allowed me to gain a better understanding of the entire concept of marketing and using resources to appeal to our market.” Ella Muir
“This business project was challenging and taught us lots of new skills. The finances and learning how to manage a business was most interesting to me. The creation and production of the products was more demanding. Methods of advertising were the most enjoyable to me.
I learnt the importance of the key elements of a business which we discussed before beginning this project. These included: the product, when it’s a good time to be selling in terms of the market, and choosing an appropriate business partner.
Reflecting on what went well and what could have been improved, I am excited to continue with the rest of the year’s business course.” Grace Westerhout
- ConnectingLearning2Life, Creativity, Featured
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.