StudyHub wins Wesley’s Entrepreneurship Development Program
Now in its ninth year, Wesley’s Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) has given hundreds of students real world business experience. The intensive boot camp takes students through an authentic entrepreneurship journey. Drawing on their own experiences and concerns, they identify genuine consumer needs, develop a product and pitch a full venture capital proposal to a panel of visiting business experts.
For Xavier, Year 10, the bootcamp held during the holidays was a chance to test what he had learnt in his business subjects. ‘There's a big difference between knowing business concepts and being able to apply them under pressure. I wanted to get better at that,' he says. ‘I was also curious about working in a team where the stakes felt a bit more real, closer to how it actually works outside of school.’
Xavier teamed up with Year 11 student Zulq and Year 8 students Xavier, Ari, Campbell, James and Miles, to pitch ‘StudyHub’, an all-in-one revision website which was awarded Best Business Idea. After studying existing competitors, the team developed features that were either missing from the market or difficult to replicate, including an AI-powered note sorter and a marketplace where verified students, tutors and educators could sell their own notes and lecture summaries.
Ari says it’s the site’s community aspect that sets it apart: ‘We wanted to include a feature that would allow students to share their notes and what they found useful with other students.’
‘The Entrepreneurship Development Program is a unique opportunity to put students’ creativity, teamwork and ingenuity to the test through a real-world entrepreneurship simulation,' says Cameron Paterson, Director of Learning. ‘There have been so many incredible business ideas coming out of boot camp over the years. In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift towards app-based businesses and AI-driven solutions, with fewer groups pitching physical products than in the past. What is really interesting is the thinking behind the ideas, what problem students are trying to solve and how they go about it.'
That shift was clear in 'LumiFit', an AI-powered fitness watch and app created by Year 8 students Dora, Amelia, Lucia, Nia and Yashika. ‘Our goal was to create easy-to-use fitness technology that helps motivate users to stay active and make healthier choices in a simple, practical way,’ Dora says. ‘We chose an app as it let us include features that would only work in that format. Throughout the development process, we used the strengths of an app, such as easy navigation, interactive features, accessibility and a more personalised user experience to make LumiFit stand out,’ Dora explains.
Dora had never considered entrepreneurship as a career pathway before commencing the program. ‘I enjoyed the experience more than I expected, and I loved collaborating with my team and pitching our ideas.’ Entrepreneurship has traditionally seen a participation gap for women, so the sustained interest from girls over the history of the EDP is a promising sign.
Ari, a first-time participant, says the boot camp delivered on his hopes. ‘I wanted to gain knowledge and experience of what it’s like to start a business, and it was a really positive experience. I learnt a different kind of thinking that I can apply across many different scenarios in my life.’
‘What I enjoy most about the bootcamp is seeing students take ownership of their ideas. There's lots of creativity and collaboration, and you can see the students learning from each other as they test and refine their ideas. With the level of problem solving and the creative ideas on display, I'm looking forward to seeing what these budding entrepreneurs come up with next,’ Cameron concludes.
