Boost your entrepreneurial and pitching skills

The Youth Innovation Challenge aims to develop a high potential business, start-up or social good innovation which creates positive impact in the City of Sydney.

  • Phase 1: 31 May – 4 June (one week)
  • Phase 2: 28 June – 9 July (two weeks, with a Week 0 orientation, likely afternoon of Thursday 24 June)
  • Phase 3: TBC

The program is open to all students. It will run for two months across three phases, with the top teams proceeding to the Phase 3 final pitch event. Register your interest to participate in this program by Friday 7 May.

About the program

How it works

Phase 1

Students participate in a large-scale online brainstorming, submitting at least one idea aligned with the challenge themes. Students will complete phase one as individual participants (not in a team). Students and industry mentors can vote for the best ideas.

Phase 2

A select number of students (up to 150 students) will progress to phase 2, which will be a team-based experience whereby student teams select and develop their best concept to address one of the challenge themes and take this concept further, with the help of an industry mentor and an innovation framework.

Phase 3

Top 5 teams progress to a final pitch event with prizes.

Participant requirements

These are approximate and expected time commitments, you will not be tracked on these hours.

Phase 1

Approximately 2–5 hours per student, to be completed in your own time.

Phase 2

For those who progress, 25 hours over two weeks plus 1 hour for the Week 0 orientation, to be completed in your own time.

Phase 3

For those who progress, come prepared to pitch to the panel of judges.

Participant demographic

The program is open to all high school or university students aged between 15–25 years old. If you progress to phase 2, you will be placed into a team.

Program delivery and management

The program will be delivered and managed by the Practera Team. Practera is an Australian education technology and programs provider. The Practera Team will deliver this program on the Practera experiential learning platform.

Learning experience

Some of the learning objectives of this program include:

  1. Identify valuable problems and opportunities and develop early stage innovative concept to address them.
  2. Integrate the skills, knowledge and experience of a diverse team to develop a potentially high value solution.
  3. Reflect on self and peers team-working skills and implement strategies to improve individual skills and overall team performance.

Participation benefits

When you successfully complete a phase and the feedback questions, you will receive a digital badge and an e-certificate to show you have successfully completed that phase. These are great to show future employers, add to your LinkedIn profile or include in your university applications.

Registration process

Fill out the expression of interest to participate in this program by Friday 7 May.