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  • 1 year ago
After years of near-wins, St. James Secondary has taken home the 2024 National Secondary School Entrepreneurship Competition Champion award. The all-girls team was among a few hundred students in Forms 4 to 6 students who participated in a simulated business experience, where they were exposed to the ins and outs, highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00After six weeks of hands-on business experience in a simulated environment, St. James Secondary
00:06School emerged the 2024 National Secondary School Entrepreneurship Competition champions,
00:13beating out hundreds of other students from schools across TNT.
00:18What would you say that this accomplishment does for St. James Secondary?
00:22This is a huge achievement for the school in terms of lifting the standards and the
00:27outward appearance of the school. Usually schools like this are not seen to be able
00:32to compete with the prestigious schools out there. So this will bolster the school and
00:37also the students and motivate them to want to achieve great things in their lives.
00:42Transformative is how the winning team described the experience.
00:46A group of girls-only tech company. Tell me how you feel about this accomplishment.
00:51I was very proud because, you know, normally you don't see a lot of women-owned businesses
00:56get a lot of credit. So I take a lot of pride in knowing that all of us worked really hard
01:03and we were able to accomplish this. All girls. Our name of the company is SciProtect. We
01:09wanted to incorporate it in the business. So that's basically how we came about the
01:15name and stuff like that.
01:16This competition, it was really, truly a great experience. We learned a lot late nights.
01:20We were up and we were really pushing. The best experience I thought I gained from this
01:26was to take a lot of risks. As one of my teammates, she really pushed me. She was like, take risks,
01:29take the risks, let's take the risks. And we really came out on top, so it was a really
01:33good choice.
01:34Tell me what you feel were the most valuable insights, business insights that you would
01:38have gained from this experience.
01:41Marketing demand, accounting skills, strategies, advertising.
01:48The girls say they intend to start their own businesses upon leaving school. It's one
01:54outcome of the program which President Christine Kangaloo lauds.
01:58Thirteen percent of past participants performed in the top one percent globally of all simulation
02:06players who have ever played. A tracing study from 2021 underscored the impact of this competition.
02:16Ninety-eight point five percent of respondents said the program positively impacted their
02:22business education. And 88.37 percent indicated that the NSEC experience had encouraged them
02:31to start their own business.
02:33The president further noted that the program holds great promise for the future development
02:38of the country's economy.
02:40The skills that will be in demand tomorrow are more likely to be different from those
02:45that are being taught in traditional classrooms today. Our education system often struggles
02:51to keep pace with the demands of this changing landscape. This has resulted in what we refer
02:57to as a skills gap, a mismatch between the skills that young people are being taught
03:03and the skills that your employers need. And this is where you, with your entrepreneurial
03:09mindset, come in.
03:11However, co-founder of the competition, Dr. Christian Stone, sought to impress upon the
03:16future entrepreneurs that all their talent and knowledge will redound to naught if they
03:21lack the right attitude.
03:22The difference between someone who is an entrepreneur and someone who has ideas. Ideas are for everyone.
03:31Just show up and do it. So, now comes the burden. Show up, execute on your ideas, and
03:41make Trinidad and Tobago better. Your blessings are waiting.
03:46Marbella Secondary School placed second overall, while St Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain,
03:51was third. Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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