The global Future Problem Solving competition is designed to promote positive futures using creative problem solving. The Shore Problem Solvers were placed second in the two major competition categories - formal written presentation and oral presentation - establishing them as the most successful team in their division. Rather than typical student fundraising efforts, the girls worked for companies developing marketing and strategic business plans. The Future Problem Solving Programme engages students in creative problem solving and stimulates critical and creative thinking skills.
The programme is designed to encourage students to develop a vision for the future. The competition theme was 'Virtual Corporations' where students were requested to answer questions such as: Will virtual corporations be able to stand the test of time? How will their structure change in the next century?
What will be the effect of virtual corporations on traditional companies and consumers? As a warm up for the international competition, and to fulfil fundraising goals, the Shore Problem Solvers helped New Zealand businesses in a consultancy capacity - exploring the social implications of becoming a virtual corporation for a large insurance company, investigating how to improve the image of auditing, as a profession, for an audit organisation and developing a marketing plan on how to promote oral hygiene to the teenage market for a well known dental chain.
This is the second entrepreneurial win for New Zealand. Yesterday is was announced New Zealand won first place position in the global Enterprise Olympics. Secondary students from New Zealand competed against the top Enterprise students in the world in a 24 hour challenge which finished yesterday morning.
Industry New Zealand was a key sponsor of the Enterprise Olympics. Some of the other projects that received funding were:- - Young Entrepreneur Programme: training school leavers and unemployed young people in Northland to become enterprising and successful self-employed business owners - Teengirls in Technology: a national educational programme designed to increase the profile of technology based business careers for young women - Community Improvement through Youth: a six month scheme promoting the development of enterprise skills amongst high school students including recent school leavers who are unemployed.
