Year 9 and 10 Students Bring Business Ideas to Life in Rapid Planning Program
Eighteen Year 9 and 10 students recently took part in a fast-paced Rapid Business Planning program with Mrs Shelley Lloyd-Smith (Commerce Department) and Liana Gooch (Head of Learning, Teaching and Innovation), designed to help young people turn simple ideas into structured, real-world ventures. Delivered over four sessions through the Butter online platform and supported by Groei Education, the program guided students through the core foundations of business planning in an interactive and practical way. The program gave students the chance to experience what it’s like to think and act like entrepreneurs starting with just an idea and building it into a clear and confident business concept.
Throughout the course, students explored how their ideas could be both viable and scalable. The sessions were designed to move quickly, giving students the chance to build confidence, think critically, and develop commercial awareness.
These enthusiastic students developed their “own unique business ideas” based on their interests and observations. They explored who their potential customers might be and what problems those customers face known in business as identifying “pains” and what positive outcomes or benefits, or “gains,” their product or service could offer. The focus was on understanding value, solving real problems, and creating a clear plan for how their idea could work in the real world.
In the final session, students pitched their business concepts in what’s known as a “Gaddie Pitch”: a short and sharp way to clearly explain the who, what, and why of their idea. The result was a set of confident, well thought out ideas that showed creativity, critical thinking, and the potential to grow.
Each student will attain a digital skills badge recognising their achievement, which can be added to resumes or portfolios as evidence of future-ready capability.
This short but powerful hands-on experience gave students a real taste of business thinking and entrepreneurship, while also building vital skills in communication, empathy, and creative problem solving that they can carry into further study, the workplace, or even a business of their own one day.
