Auckland school students get a taste for entrepreneurship

Auckland school students have a new passion for entrepreneurship after attending workshops that saw them create and pitch their business ideas to fellow classmates.

Over the course of ten days in November, more than 1100 young people from 29 different schools in Auckland took part in the MYOB Start Now workshops, learning a range of skills including financial literacy, entrepreneurship, ingenuity and collaboration through various interactive activities.

MYOB Head of Employee Services, Felicity Brown, says the workshops gave students important skills that will help them in their future careers.

“Teaching students financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills opens up career paths that students may not have considered before. Having a diverse skill set is essential for succeeding in the future of work, where automation is set to impact aspects of many jobs.”

The MYOB Start Now workshops were run by Fiftysix Creations, an Australian organisation whose purpose is to inspire youth and solve unemployment by teaching students valuable skills for the workplace.

Teen founder of Fiftysix Creations, Taj Pabari, says the workshops were designed to empower and equip participating students with the skills, resources and mindset that they need to thrive in the 21^st century workforce of the future.

“Our team were very impressed with the calibre of ideas and passion they saw when the students described the issues in their community and how they intended to solve these through the power of business,” says Mr Pabari.

The workshops required the students to think outside of the box and create their own business idea, which was then presented to the class. During their presentation, the students had to convince their classmates that their business was worthy of investment – similar to a business pitch in reality.

Students from schools across Auckland, including those from Avondale College, Manurewa High School and Auckland Grammar School took part in the workshops.

High school student, Harlene, says the workshops taught classmates to be more confident at public speaking and encouraged students to voice their business ideas with their peers – no matter if they were big or small.

“I didn’t like public speaking before, but we learnt how to push each other out of our comfort zones and support one another’s ideas all within a safe space.”

“Understanding basic business practices gives students confidence no matter what type of profession they decide to pursue in the future. When they start their careers, they will be able to take what they learnt in the workshops and apply it in their workplace,” says Ms Brown.

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For further comment or other information please contact:

Janelle Ericksen, MYOB NZ PR Specialist

P: 09 632 9707 / M: 021 1050 490 / E: janelle.ericksen@myob.com

Gerard Blank, The Agency Communications Limited Director

P: 03 341 5841 / M: 0275 243 629 / E: gerard@theagencynz.co.nz

About MYOB

MYOB is a leading provider of cloud-based business management solutions. With an offering of over 50 solutions, MYOB makes life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses across Australia and New Zealand. The MYOB software spans the full lifecycle of a business from sole traders to larger enterprises with over 1,000 employees. MYOB also provides ongoing support to a network of over 40,000 accountants, bookkeepers and other consultants. They are committed to ongoing innovation, particularly through the Connected Practice Strategy and through development of the MYOB Platform. For more information visit myob.com or follow @MYOB on Twitter.

About the MYOB Business Monitor Snapshot survey

The New Zealand MYOB Consumer Snapshot survey was conducted using Pure Profile’s consumer panel. In total, 1000 respondents were surveyed. The survey was conducted online from 28 November - 2 December 2019.