BINUS School Serpong has taken out the top prize at the annual KIWI Challenge Competition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Kompetisi Ide Wirausaha Indonesia (KIWI) Challenge Competition is an Education New Zealand (ENZ) initiative working in collaboration with an in-market partner, Kopi Tuli (Deaf Cafe), a hearing-impaired community in Jakarta.
The annual student entrepreneurship competition sees participating students from schools across Java and Kalimantan provide an innovative solution or idea on a given theme. Each year, the competition is run in partnership with one of New Zealand’s top universities. This year Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University chose the topic of Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship in the Tourism Industry.
Minister of Education Chris Hipkins officially launched the KIWI Challenge competition during his visit to Jakarta in October.
Since then, 36 teams from 18 schools worked on their innovative ideas and business pitching skills to be in the running to receive vouchers worth up to 10,000,000 IDR and virtual internship opportunities with Massey. These 36 teams worked hard to develop their idea and create a short video presentation to submit to the competition.
Five impressive teams were shortlisted to attend the finals on 3 December. These top-performing teams were then required to provide a 10-minute presentation further articulating their business solution, followed by a five-minute Q&A from the experienced judging panel.
The judging panel was made up of Dr Jeffrey Stangl, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Massey University, Geoff Bilbrough, GM Marketing and Communications, Education New Zealand and Tri Erwinsyah Putra, Co-Founder, Kopi Tuli.
Dr Stangl remarked, “If the future of the planet is in your [the students] hands, then we’re in good shape. Each one of the teams have thought through some very innovative ideas and solutions to problems unique to Indonesia.”
Mr Bilbrough added, “I was hugely impressed with what I saw today, you can be very proud of yourselves and feel very optimistic about the future that you have before you.”
The winning school was BINUS School Serpong, an international school in South Tangerang, Indonesia with their ‘Beyond borders’ idea. Beyond borders is a travel planning app that streamlines and personalises the travel planning process. The team also had a strong focus on local community engagement and inclusivity across people with different abilities.
The BINUS School Serpong team won vouchers worth 10,000,000 IDR ($1,000 NZD) and will now undertake a virtual internship with Massey. The virtual internship will teach students practical skills to ‘take their idea to the world.’ Through eight hours of customised supervision from some of Massey’s academic marketing experts, students will learn how to add value to their idea and create a digital marketing plan to effectively launch their business solution.
