The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
That’s partly the lesson a large group of students from École Boundary Elementary in North Vancouver got recently, after their school held its second-ever Young Entrepreneur’s Fair on Dec. 6 and 7.
The budding business students got a taste of what it’s like to build an enterprise from the ground up, from doing market research, learning financial management, testing out sales skills, and beyond.
These are skills that will prove to be exceptionally useful later in life, explained Boundary teacher Raphael Choi, who was also responsible for organizing this year’s fair.
“Some kids see it as another craft project, some kids really see it as an opportunity to extend their inquiry thinking,” Choi said.
“I think it’s really great for them to reach out and talk to people that they wouldn’t normally speak to. We talk a lot about authentic education, so something that has a real life application. This is as real as it gets when it comes to something they can do in school.”
The fair this year was buoyed with participation from six Boundary classes from Grades 5 to 7 totalling more than 120 students.
Spread across two nights this year, the project essentially encouraged youth to learn the logistics of running their own manufacturing business -- along with the challenges that come with that.
“We first start by doing market research and then it goes into prototyping and they get feedback based on that,” Choi said.
“Then we talk about marketing – how do you brand your product and what kind of marketing posters can you have? We also talk about merchandising and customer service and in the midst of that we talk about financial literacy, so kids are expected to understand the concept of total sales, total cost, cost per unit, and profit.”
During the fair the youths’ wares were sold for actual money, so students learned about making a profit, breaking even and absorbing losses.
Ten per cent of their final profits were given to a charity of their choice, Choi said.
On display this year was a vast array of goods, from paintings, bath bombs, plush pillows, and holiday-themed products such as Christmas tree ornaments.
Boundary initiated its Young Entrepreneur’s Fair last year after a reshuffling in the B.C. school curriculum added a new subject called Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies and the Career Education component was reorganized.
“We had to do something for Career and Applied Design,” Choi said. “We went with it last year and it became really successful so we decided to do it again this year to meet the curriculum criteria for those two subjects, but at the same time it ended up being a really good activity for just reaching out to the community.”
Last year’s fair was participated in by roughly 80 students from Grades 6 and 7. After it was so well-received the decision to expand the fair this year was made.
“I think a lot of students really enjoyed stepping out of their comfort zone and reaching out to people. They got so much thrill from people that were interested in their product, especially when it’s something that they created from scratch,” Choi said.
He admitted that due to the intense amount of planning and investment required to make the fair a success Boundary plans to now host the event every two years.
Choi added that although he was the event organizer, his primary role was logistics.
“It’s really up to each teacher to carry out lessons and each student and family to support and create products as well,” he said. “It was overall a really positive event. It was just awesome to be a part of that.”
