A group of high school students have been given a unique opportunity to put their entrepreneurial skills to the test and start their own social enterprises. Through a partnership with Parafield Gardens and Salisbury East High School, we’ve been able to offer these students part-time traineeships in Certificate III in Community Services. The focus of this project is directly built around community development in the North and equipping young people with the skills to become confident, enterprising and employable candidates for the future.
“We really wanted to focus on providing an opportunity for youth to develop a number of business and entrepreneurial orientated skills that gave them new ways of thinking for their future, considering the recent news on the eventual closure of Holden,” said Paul Herbig, Vocational Education Training Coordinator at the AISR.
The concept for this program initially started with a conversation between key staff at Parafield Gardens High School about ways that students could gain a unique experience by working with the community, while at the same time providing students with sound business ideas that foster a culture of entrepreneurship. The program now involves a number of other stakeholders including Maxima Group Training, AGesture Elizabeth, and the Salisbury Council.
The group is operating under the name Community Networks, and plan to implement a range of programs over the next year. Their first project, Traffic Jam, utilises food recovery to create jams, chutneys and other accompaniments. The group is responsible for all aspects of the product development, including preparation, marketing, promotion, labelling and fundraising.
Community Networks has been invited by OzHarvest, a food rescue organization, to be involved in their annual Eat, Think, Save event on Monday, 27 July where thousands of members of the public are invited to the University of Adelaide, Goodman lawns, North Terrace from 11.30am to 2.30pm for a free and delicious hot lunch all created from produce that would have ended up as landfill across the nation. On the day, the students will produce two savoury accompaniments products to be served with the OzHarvest dishes and have an opportunity to market their project. All profits made from their Traffic Jam products will be donated to charity.
In the coming months, we will be following these students on their journey to develop social enterprises that give back to the community. If you would like to help support the group, you can make a donation to their GoFundMe campaign here.