22 Feb 2022

YCA Team

Digital Boss Pilot Kicks Off!

Entrepreneurship

Last year we put a call out to schools across Australia to join us in co-designing our newest program at Young Change Agents: Digital Boss.

After selecting five top entrepreneurial schools and one regional training centre for youth we launched the first kick off session on the 17th of February to begin the co-design process.

The Digital Boss Pilot is a year-long program where educators will co-design, create, and test the NLS program. The NLS program will see students form teams, find a gap in their local market for a digital service (social enterprise), secure two paid customers and deliver their service to their client. At the end of the program, they will have a choice over what happens next to their enterprise – whether they choose to continue running it or close the business.

We've got a fantastic cohort of educators from across the country spanning from Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria. Now that the pilot has kicked off, participating schools will go through the co-design stages over the course of this year before we launch the program in 2023.

We’ve shared below what some of our teachers said about why they chose to get involved in the NLS Pilot.

MEET OUR DIGITAL BOSS PILOT SCHOOLS

NLS Schools logo

Luke and April | Heathfield High School, SA
Heathfield High School is one of 5 specialist schools implementing the SA Government’s Entrepreneurial Learning Strategy. Heathfield has been involved in several programs with Young Change Agents, and is currently collaborating with us on the 2022 E3: Entrepreneurial Educator Exchange. Heathfield has a strong track record of embedding entrepreneurial education in their school, and have previously participated in $20 Boss. The teaching team from Heathfield have chosen to participate in the NLS Pilot as a way to challenge their special entry students, take them out of their comfort zone, and to provide the next step in their entrepreneurial education journey. Last year, Heathfield High School had two students who were finalists in the 2021 Teens in Business Award, and both Luke and April were finalists in the Entrepreneurial Educator of the Year Award.

Bill and Alison  | RIST - Rural Industries Skill Training, VIC
RIST is one of Australia’s leading independent agricultural colleges delivering vocational education and training. In 2020, RIST recognised that their students expressed interest for a business and entrepreneurship program to supplement their agricultural studies. Since then, RIST has set up a school for agribusiness, and has developed an agribusiness and entrepreneurship program for students in Year 8 and 9. The team at RIST are excited to be part of the NLS Pilot as they want to prepare their students for the future of agriculture becoming more innovative and technologically advanced as an industry. They see entrepreneurial programs like NLS as a way to set students up for this future.

Darlene and Nicole | Kepnock State High School, QLD
Kepnock State High School is a secondary school in Bundaberg. Young Change Agents has previously delivered funded programs at the school, and in 2021, Nicole was a finalist in the Entrepreneurial Educator of the Year category of the Teens in Business Award. 2022 will be the first year that Nicole and Darlene will integrate entrepreneurship into the curriculum for their Year 9 cohort through $20 Boss. The team at Kepnock are excited to be a part of the NLS Pilot as it aligns with their vision of embedding entrepreneurial education into their school. The team at Kepnock are also keen to continue working with the local ecosystem to connect students to other opportunities in their community. Nicole and Darlene are also looking forward to building their capacity as entrepreneurial educators, and are keen to collaborate with other educators around Australia.  

Jenifer and Stacey | Saint Stephens College, QLD
Saint Stephens College is a co-educational independent school on the Gold Coast. Young Change Agents has previously delivered a number of programs at the school. The school has a strong focus on entrepreneurship and their Year 9 students have the opportunity to participate in an expo where special guests are invited to see the students innovate, prototype, and pitch their ideas. In 2021, a team from Saint Stephens College won the Financial Wellbeing Design Challenge with their business, Millionairs. The team at Saint Stephens are excited to be a part of the NLS Pilot as they want to continue to develop their entrepreneurial endeavours at the school, and see this as the next step in their students’ entrepreneurial learning journey. They are also looking forward to connecting with the ecosystem and collaborating further with their community.

Rachelle | Kolbe Catholic College, WA
Kolbe Catholic College is an independent co-educational school in Rockingham, Perth. Kolbe Catholic College has previously run $20 Boss at their school, and wanted an opportunity for their students to progress to the next stage in their entrepreneurial learning journey. The team at Kolbe are excited to be be testing the program with their Year 9 cohort and are looking forward to the co-design opportunities.

Josh | Mount Gambier High School, SA
Mount Gambier High School is one of five Entrepreneurial Specialist Schools (ESS) in South Australia. The school is located in regional South Australia and sees a range of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Mount Gambier has been delivering a modified version of $20 Boss at their school for the last three years, and are invested in building the entrepreneurial skills and capabilities of their students. A team of students from Mount Gambier won the Intrapreneur of the Year Award at the 2021 Teens in Business Award last year. The team at Mount Gambier are looking forward to being a part of the NLS Pilot as they want to accelerate the skills of the students who are engaged and have potential. They also want to be able to build on what they’ve been already doing and to enhance the entrepreneurial capabilities of teachers at the school.


During the kick-off session, we asked participating teachers to imagine how they would want to feel upon completing the NLS Pilot, and this is what they said:

mentimeter _ nLS

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

If you are working within the tech ecosystem we're looking to form a brainstrust of mentors and supporters to help the program aligns with the latest tech trends. If you're interested in getting involved please reach out to the YCA team by emailing nls@youngchangeagents.com.

If your school is interested in embedding the Digital Boss program into your school in 2023 you can express complete by emailing nls@youngchangeagents.com to receive the latest updates to receive more information when the program is launched.

We're excited to be able to work with these six schools to co-design and pilot this program in 2022 and will be continuing to share our progress throughout the year. So keep an eye out here or sign up to get our monthly newsletter updates here