A nation-wide search for Australia’s top young entrepreneurs is set to start later this month and upper primary school children from Tasmania’s Cradle Coast could be amongst them.

Club Kidpreneur Foundation, a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to inspiring kids aged 9-12 years, has launched a national competition, the Kidpreneur Challenge, to unearth the enterprise capacity of young Australians from years 4, 5 & 6.

Some of Tasmania’s innovation leaders will come together across two nights at the end of July to share information about the Kidpreneur Challenge competition and the entrepreneurship programs currently happening in the Cradle Coast community. Hear from University of Tasmania’s Professor of Community Entrepreneurship Elaine Mosakowski; Cradle Coast Innovation Principal Business Advisor Daryl Connelly; Maker’s Workshop Coordinator Joanna Gair; and Club Kidpreneur’s School Partnerships consultant Robyn Kronenberg.

Club Kidpreneur School Partnerships consultant, Mrs Robyn Kronenberg said, “It is important to expose children to entrepreneurial thinking at a young age, because much of the entrepreneurship experience develops life skills.”

“Recent research shows there is an increase in the enterprise skills that employers want from young people: critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, financial literacy, digital literacy, teamwork and communication,”

“The Kidpreneur Challenge program is built on the premise of giving children their first real-world business experience and lays a foundation of these critical enterprise skills for jobs of the future,” she said.

Run in schools during Term 3, students in the Kidpreneur Challenge will work in small teams to build a business, sell products at a local market and pitch their business idea via video to real-life entrepreneurs for their chance to win a money-can’t-buy-business internship with IGNITE partner Moose Toys, the world’s 5^th largest toy company and makers of the latest craze Shopkins.

Kids learn the key steps to start a business from ideation to commercialisation, they then donate their profits to charity, fostering an understanding of how business can be used for social good.

Mrs Kronenberg said, “The interactive, experiential learning allows kids to stretch their creativity, get comfortable with risk and failure, and build resilience and confidence. The program is mapped to the Australian Curriculum achievement standards and general capabilities.”

The Club Kidpreneur information sessions will be held 4pm-5pm, Tuesday July 26^th at the CollabLab, University of Tasmania and Wednesday July 27^th at Spreyton Primary School. Registration is free and open to all schools, parents and business community members.