BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008

The BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008 has been jointly organised by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy to dedicate a half-day event running entrepreneurship related programmes for youths. It was held on Friday,18th July 2008, at the Hwa Chong Institution. Students and teachers from more than 20 primary and tertiary institutes were invited to participate in workshops, board games and exhibitions. These programmes were aimed to engage youths in various activities to inspire them to realize the possibilities of creative ideas and turning them into avenues of wealth creation.




The BlueSky Enterprise Day is part of the BlueSky Festival which is held annually to run initiatives that encourage and foster the spirit of enterprise amongst Singaporeans, namely the youth.




Gracing the event was the Senior Minister of State for Education, RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, acting as Guest of Honour and took a brief tour of the exhibition area.





At the exhibition, various schools also held exhibits side by side along with other business companies supporting the event such as Now Asia, Microsoft and KooBits. Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy were on site to present business development and education programmes which are in line with the vision of Spring Singapore’s initiative to integrate youths into the culture of enterprise.







Student booths on the other hand, presented business programmes and activities that have been run by their respective entrepreneurial student clubs and co-curricular activities. There were also those who tried their hand at setting up and running their own shops selling soft toys and bookmarks among others. Most importantly are exhibits which showcased exemplary Singapore start-ups such as Charles and Keith detailing their humble beginnings to the successful businesses they are today.







Also gracing the event were educational albeit fun filled games held by Settlers Lite, also a local start up. Set in tables laid with board games, groups of students were treated to the fine but essential skills of networking and negotiating. Strategic game play was also evident in “Dividends” where players engage themselves in the trade of financial literacy. Central to the purpose of enterprise, these would prove to be invaluable skills in business and lay the foundation of enterprise in seamless and interactive activity.







Workshops were at hand to foster creative ideas and grease the wheels of innovation. In a series of talks, students participated in discussions with speakers, shared ideas and mapped out concepts in business. It presents a wonderful avenue for them to learn and interact with others to inspire potential entrepreneurs by planting the seeds of business acumen.

Cream of the Crop

I personally think that the IvP is a great programme for young students to stand up and dare to be creative.

These students at Kong Hwa School are exceptionally intelligent, creative and initiative (and self-initiated learners if I may add). Don't judge them based on their sizes, for small people, they sure have big ideas.

The red dot design museum never cease to amaze. Especially if you're visiting it for the first time. Students want to email the designers to ask them some questions on their works.
'Grandma, what a big fridge you have...' 'The better to chop you up and refrigerate you my dear...' A student explores one of the award-winning design refrigerator.
Back to school : students share what they have learnt during the museum visit.

BrainWriting in action! 'So what do you think?' The Innovative 8 (one of them is missing from the picture) brainstorm for ideas.' So tell me again why these students are so passionate about innovation? They come up with great ideas, question everything and have a huge hunger to learn.'

'These are the better students, they're all student leaders and are good performers in school.'

Ah, this explains everything. All the best for your IvP project kids! I'll definitely be seeing you soon!

InnoWorks™ : Spark That Idea!

I think I forgot to announce this but Youth Enterprise Academy is the Education Partner of the 9th Design Competition organised by Bukit View Secondary School and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.



To help students to find that creative spark they need to create that winning design, a compact version of the programme was customised for the competition and students and teachers from schools like Rulang Primary School, Raffles Girls School (Secondary) and Pasir Ris Primary School came together for an afternoon of learning and fun!

'Hmm where does this piece go?'

Students learn about the importance of Innovation in today's world. It's presentation time! Feedback is always important. And I really like their ideas too!

The red dot design museum is a great place for new ideas to spawn forth from young minds!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students for attending the workshop.

It's not often that we have teachers and students to come together as participants and I'm glad they did, because I think that just the simple task of working together will help to them to bond as a team and I'm confident that they'll be able to do well in the upcoming competition!

I³ Workshop @ St Anthony's Canossian Secondary School from 20th Feb 2008 to 22nd Feb 2008

It was my first time being a facilitator for a YEA programme at St Anthony’s Canossian Secondary School. I was pretty excited about the workshop and have been looking forward to it all week!

On the first and second day of the workshop, board games were the highlights where the girls get to play educational board games as part of their learning. The board games were interesting and interactive as you can easily see that from the happy faces of the girls. The girls were happily playing and cooperated very well with one another. This was most obvious when they're negotiating “deals” among themselves in order to push and promote their businesses. I was impressed by the ‘friendliness’ in their negotiation.

Negotiation of deal being carried out among the 2 players. An “Ok settled!” statement is quickly followed by a swift transaction. If only things are as easy in the real world....

The girls are listening attentively to Donnie for the explanation of the cards and their functions.

On the last day of the workshop, the girls were able to generate many creative ideas for their upcoming entrepreneurial projects. It was impressive to see that the girls are very enthusiastic and supportive of the ideas produced by their classmate. Girl power!

Cracking their brains and putting ideas together to decide on which product or service to provide.

Presenting their innovative ideas!

Good job girls! I am so proud of all of you. Hope that all your ideas would be put into action in the near future and be a great success!

Hope to see you all again soon!

Making An Impact On Your Immediate Environment

Our recent Creative Problem Solving workshops at ITE Balestier proves that sparks for creative ideas can be found anywhere and everywhere.

Or in this case, students were able to come up with creative solutions to everyday problems that they face in schools. Problems like the losing of tools during automotive lessons, or the inability to open doors when you're carrying bulky items (because your hands are full), or even how to improve the ways you move heavy objects like tires were put through their creative mills. The end results were, as always, remarkably exciting.

I look forward to see these ideas developed for the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventor's Award.

In the meantime, here's some snaps from the workshops at ITE Balestier.

I don't need no flipchart to present my idea!

Brainstorming for great ideas.

I've actually learnt a thing or two about automotive from these automotive students :)

How to Raise Funds for Next Year

The recent training that I had with Temasek Secondary School's I&E Club reinforces the belief that good ideas, good BUSINESS ideas can come from anyone.

Case in point, the students from the club went through a round of InnoWorks™ to generate a fresh arsenal of fund raising ideas for the club.

Their best idea? I won't tell you but I'll give you a hint: similar to the idea of this RJC (or is it former RJC?) student's business idea.

Check it out here : http://donutsonline.zlhub.com/

Here're some snaps.

Mabel shares a funny moment with the students.

Giving the students some food for thought :)

Hard at work!

A group sharing an idea of theirs.

I look forward to see their ideas bear fruit next year :)

Earth Craft

Earth Craft (n): Craft work that is environmentally friendly.


Actually, I just made that up. I'm constantly amazed at the level of talent that I come across in our programmes in school (I sure don't remember being anywhere as creative as these dudes and dudettes when I was their age not too many moons ago.).


But it is, little gems hidden in Northbrooks Secondary School. Enough said. I'll let their work do the talking.

It's still too early to tell, but I bet there's going to be a lot of flowers and bees in this one.

The clay guru shares a funny moment with her students.

Whoever can guess what this is get a prize from me :)

I think this look a lot like me!

And this is Roy from my favorite online comic brought to life. I didn't know you could use key like that.

And They All Wear Pink Bags!

I just couldn't find a picture of the schools bags, I asked the girls in my class, 'Why is it that everyone's bags are pink? You see Barbie, Cars, Shrek, and they're all in pink!'

Their reply was just, 'Because we are girls what!' My apologies then, I stand rebuked.

The Primary 5 cohort of CHIJ Lady of the Nativity went through the InnoWorks™ at red dot museum programme to generate and think of new and fun ways to teach maths.

I haven't gone back to the school to take a look at their end products yet, I can't wait for it.

The class that I took was 5 Hope, supposedly the smartest class in the cohort and well, it showed. Despite being obvious smart alecks, they came up with really innovative ways to teach math.

The girls were real darlings (maybe because it was only 2 days, instead of 200 days as a teacher), and again, the visit to red dot design museum proved successful and was really good in expanding mindsets and revisiting mental boundaries.

I remember seeing a team of the girls entering the Bukit View Design Competition (because I snucked a peek at the Bukit View Design Competition entries, but that's another post for another time) but I couldn't be sure, but all the best Team Nativity! We're rooting for ya!

Recycling's The Way to Go

To make our InnoWorks™ programme at for the Secondary One cohort at Dunearn Secondary more interesting, we decided to up the usual challenge to the students more interesting.
Design, pitch, plan the materials and then redeem for the materials that you need to make your product.


And since each team only had limited amount of points and there were limited resources, it was most interesting to see how they would decide which materials to use.


'Eh, let's use the colgate box.'

'Don't want la! The cardboard so flimsy, plastic bottle better.'

'No plastic will not be good for our product, so hard to decorate it.'

'Then I do lor, come pass to me.'

'I still think colgate box is better.'


Once again, the level of creativity and the quality of their ideas and works never fail to stump me. It's these little surprises that I really look forward to with each programme. I'll post about the great ideas by the Secondary Two cohort sometime later this week when I have the time.


Cheeras, happy holidays to all you students out there and have lots of fun! (But don't forget to revise ok? Heh)