// Consistently a top 10 school in WA, Carmel School is introducing an entrepreneurship program for Year 9 students…
How are we going to teach school students all about the joys, pain and wonders of startups and business?
Founded in 1959, Carmel School is a private modern Orthodox Zionist Jewish school based in Yokine.
Its new Entrepreneurship Program has been developed using local knowledge and expertise and will be taught in a purpose-built space located in the newly renovated High School library.
The program will educate Year 9 students about all aspects of transforming an idea into a business. Topics covered in the program include ideation, customer discovery and connections, financial modeling and budgeting, building a minimum viable product, legal considerations, promotion and product pitch.
Additionally, students will connect with Curtin University, known for their innovative and entrepreneurial learning practices alongside coaches and mentors from the business sector. This includes guest speakers, academics and leading thinkers in the entrepreneurship space.
“We are absolutely thrilled with this program and incredibly excited to offer it to the students of Carmel,” said Carmel Principal Shula Lazar.
“We firmly believe that this program will equip students with skills they will use well into their futures, at the same time challenging their thinking and providing rich learning experiences.”
Shula Lazar, Principal Carmel School
The classes will be taught by Carmel’s newest teacher, Anna Lee who has advised the classes will be anything but a traditional class.
“Students will quickly be engaging with people in the ‘real world’ and there will be a lot of opportunities to get out of their comfort zones as they develop their ideas into businesses and work towards the pitch. We will have a really cool new space to learn and create in, and additionally we will be touring innovative, creative maker spaces around Perth.”
Anna Lee
Notably, Anna volunteered at Bloom Lab during her studies which she acknowledges as having a major impact on her views regarding entrepreneurship.
“Bloom was exactly what I needed,” Anna told Startup News. “I met like-minded people, passionate about solving problems in innovative ways that were meaningful to consumers”.
“Because I had grown up in a family where we owned our own business and I had always helped with communications and customer relations, I had a skill set that was a vital complement to the process of getting new businesses launched successfully”, she added.
Anna believes high school students are at the perfect age to start their entrepreneurship journey. Having previously taught people from a variety of ages and demographics, she says teenagers have a unique mix of savviness about how the world works without being too hamstring with intellectual baggage and entrenched ways of thinking.
“It is true, however, that teenagers can be lacking in empathy and a little focused on themselves, but this course will break them out of that way of thinking and very quickly get them focused on the consumer.”
Anna Lee
The program will officially start next term with Year 9’s having lessons three times per week for six weeks. This will be followed by a full year elective option for students in Year 10 next year. Extra-curricula activities will subsequently be available for Year 11s and 12s next year.
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Featured Photo: Shula Luzar, Principal of Carmel School (Supplied)
