With technological advances, the way we approach work, business and our careers has completely shifted. With access to a smartphone and some Wi-Fi, anyone, at any age, can start a business.

This is why Melbourne’s Bialik College partnered with LUNA, a team of experts that exist to help founders launch and grow game changing startups, and Dr Brandon Carp, Executive Chairman and co-founder of UHG. Together, they created a week-long program for Bialik’s Year 9 students centred around innovation, entrepreneurship and startup methodology. 

“We’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, but never with students,” said Ronen Heine, CEO and founder of LUNA. “This was the first time we’ve designed and delivered something with the younger generation and we were blown away by the outcome! What a week it was!”

Founders and CEOs from world-class businesses spoke during the week, including Gabby Leibovich, co-founder of Catch Group, Jess and Stef Dadon, co-founders of How Two Live and TWOOBS and Jodie Auster, the General Manager of UberEats.

Jess and Stef Dadon are themselves former Bialik students. “It was particularly special for us to be able to take part with the school we went to, and really amazing to see the transition they made from unsure on Monday morning to the confident and passionate pitches we heard on Friday.”

Jeremy Stowe-Lindner, Principal of Bialik College said, “Entrepreneurship Week is an Australian first. Rather than a flash-in-the-pan speaker or experience, this is a week-long deep dive into the entrepreneurship and tech world connecting with curricular experiences before and after. We engage with world-class companies from UberEats to venture capitalists Rampersand and retail extraordinaire, Catch of the Day.”

LUNA believes that it is important to recognise both tech innovation-based startups as well as purpose driven businesses. An integral part of the program was an on-foot tour of the Cremorne region as a “startup hub” where the students visited the offices of MYOB, REA Group, Pact Group, Rampersand and LaunchPad Hub. 

The team at LaunchPad Hub introduced the students to the importance of social entrepreneurship and purpose-driven business through an activity that identified the student’s passions and social issues that they felt strongly about.

LUNA’s workshops encouraged the students to consider what problems exist in the world around them, conceive their own business idea about how to solve that problem, and then pitch that idea to their parents, students and teachers at the end of the week.

The program was structured so that the students had an intensive experience that immersed them in the entrepreneurship world in a way that connects with their curricular experiences. Students spent half of their time delving into the world of these innovators, and half the time developing ideas of their own, culminating in a 90-second digitally interactive Shark Tank-style pitch at MYOB to a CEO judging panel. 

“​We are preparing children for a workforce and for jobs that do not yet exist. The 21st century skill set is a very different one to the siloed careers of yesteryear, so entrepreneurship is a perfect vehicle for that," said Jeremy Stowe-Lindner.

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