Students get down to business

Young Enterprise Scheme student Liam McFall of Aquinas College has started a casual work website with his classmates. He will be taking part in the International Trade Challenge. Photo / John Borren

Three Tauranga college students will be battling it out for a place in the International Trade Challenge in China this August.

Senior college students Liam McFall from Aquinas College, Emily McCarthy from Tauranga Girls' College and Taelyn Smythe from Otumoetai College were selected to take part in the FedEx Express/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge this weekend at Massey University Albany against 77 other budding entrepreneurs from around the country.

The students have only a few hours to come up with an idea, write a business plan to support it, create a prototype and then present back to a judging panel.

Liam's sister Alice took part in the trade challenge in 2011 and represented New Zealand in Hong Kong. He said this motivated him to take part in the challenge and he hoped he would get as far as she did.

"It seems like a fun thing to do and it will be a point of difference on my CV. Entrepreneurship is something I want to head towards in future.

"I'll go to uni then the plan is to get out on my own and make something happen."

Liam is part of a college business class taking part in the Young Enterprise Scheme. For this, he and his team have developed a website for people to list casual work such as lawn mowing, gardening and housework for students to earn pocket money.

It was through this class that he got a chance to enter the trade challenge.

Emily said the trade challenge would be a world-class experience.

"It will help me and everyone else involved to develop further as creative, logically thinking and powerful business people who understand business processes yet are also willing to look at something from a new angle and put a bit of a different spin on it to create the next trends."

Emily's older sister Loren represented New Zealand in the international trade challenge in 2012.