Three GCC Students Show What Enterprise Skills Look Like in Action
In May, our Innovation Pathways students in Year 10 and 11 attended the Sunshine Coast’s Premier Innovation and Entrepreneurship conference, FWD Fest. Everyone had an amazing day hearing from some amazing speakers and networking with business leaders, founders and innovators from around our region.
For three of our Year 11 students, though, they did something most adults never attempt. Philip Kasselman, Taj Kilchester and Matt O’Shea pitched their startup, SafetySight, to a room full of business leaders, founders and investors at FWD Fest, the Sunshine Coast’s annual innovation conference, FWD Fest.
SafetySight is a First Aid Compliance and Management platform the boys are building as part of their Certificate IV in Entrepreneurship and New Business. They delivered a Youth Pitch at the opening breakfast event last Wednesday. Over the next two days, they worked the conference floor, introduced themselves to strangers, asked questions, listened, followed up, and mapped every interaction on a whiteboard.
By the end of the conference, three Year 11 students had secured five businesses willing to pilot their platform, five mentors offering ongoing guidance, five senior business leaders who want to stay connected, three technical partners, and a refined strategy for taking their product to market. Twelve meaningful connections in two days. From a single pitch over breakfast.
They also spent time with Luke Annear, founder and CEO of SafetyCulture (a $2 billion Australian tech company), and Craig Scroggie, CEO and Managing Director of NEXTDC (one of Australia’s largest data centre operators) as well as founder Rob Neely from Securely (a startup out of Noosa now valued at 400 million dollars), Daniel Flynn (Co-Founder of Thankyou.) and Bill & Ed Overton, the co-founders of The Lad Collective (which grew from 0 to $30 million in revenue in 2 years). All of these amazing leaders gave the boys their time, attention and advice. Craig Scroggie in particular was under significant time pressure after delivering his keynote, and his conversation with the SafetySight team was one of the only ones he had before leaving.
This infographic tells the full story of what the boys achieved across those two days. Silicon Coast, the organisation behind FWD Fest, will be using it as a case study in their impact report.
Why This Matters for Your Child
This story didn’t happen by accident. Philip, Taj and Matt have been developing enterprise skills since Year 10 through our Innovation Pathways program (formerly called the DeLorean Project).
Innovation Pathways is built around a skill set that industry consistently tells us matters more than technical knowledge alone: problem discovery, idea development, self-directed learning, initiative, comfort with failure, project management, reflection, communication, collaboration, and the ability to put your work in front of real people and respond to feedback.
These are the skills that show up in every job interview, every team, every career change, and every business. They are hard to teach through textbooks. They need to be practised in real situations, with real stakes.
Starting in Year 10, students learn and practise these skills through a structured appraisal framework (included alongside this article so you can see exactly what we assess and how we do it). Students progress through four levels, from Recognising through to Applying, across every skill area. Technology skills are embedded throughout.
In Year 11 and 12, students continue in Innovation Pathways and complete the Certificate IV in Entrepreneurship and New Business, delivered in partnership with Groei Education. This is a real-world qualification worth 8 QCE points with an ATAR equivalent rank of 75-79.
What makes this certificate different from others at the same level is how you earn it. Students identify a genuine problem, build a solution, and take that solution to market. The process of doing all the things required to successfully launch a product or service, from customer research to pitching to financial planning, is what completes the qualification. The SafetySight team is living proof of that model in action.
Philip, Taj and Matt walked into a room where they were the youngest people present. They left with a full pipeline, a network of supporters, and the kind of confidence that only comes from doing the real thing.
If your child is in Year 9 or Year 10 and interested in Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, ask me about Innovation Pathways. This is where it starts.
Rob Steffler, Dean of Studies & Head of Innovation Pathways