Students impress Auckland mayors at Trade Fair

The business skills of secondary school students took centre stage recently at an annual Auckland Trade Fair impressing three Auckland mayors. 
More than 250 students from across Auckland sold products and services produced by their own student companies as part of the nationwide Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).
As well as trading to the public, all stalls were eligible for three Trade Fair awards with North Shore, Manukau and Auckland City mayors judging the day’s top honours; Mayor Andrew Williams judged the best customer service award, Mayor Len Brown judged the best overall stall and Mayor John Banks judged best service or product.
North Shore schools claimed two of the three prizes with Long Bay College’s Illusions Design winning best stall for their innovative display of glow in the dark duvet covers and Westlake Boys’ High School’s BONZA winning best product for their organic pest repellent. 
From Manukau City, Auckland Seventh-day Adventist High School’s VIP team claimed best customer service for their car exhaust noise cut off switch.
“The enterprise, creativity and energy that these kids put into the programme is truly inspirational,” says Lisa Ford YES coordinator for Enterprise North Shore who organised the Trade Fair.
“The public were treated to an amazing display of products and services produced by student businesses. Essentially they witnessed some of the first business ventures of our country’s future business leaders.”
YES is a hands-on scheme requiring students to establish and run a business within the school curriculum. It fosters tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, giving them the opportunity to form a company, create a business plan, and produce goods or services to sell.
Students learn all aspects of running a business including budgeting, decision making, managing risk, market research, marketing, selling, and annual financial reporting.
Enterprise North Shore, who organised this year’s Auckland Trade Fair for the first time, runs the Young Enterprise Scheme in Auckland Central, North Shore and Rodney.