Primary Enterprise Challenge
The Primary Enterprise Challenge is one of our flagship programs at Young Dragons CICC, designed to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in children aged 6-11. Through this exciting initiative, we aim to inspire the next generation of innovators by providing them with the skills, tools, and confidence to bring their creative ideas to life.
Partnerships and Teacher Support: We are proud to partner with Alison Williams from Craigfelyn Primary School to deliver this challenge. In addition to student-focused activities, we offer free CPD (Continuing Professional Development) opportunities to teachers. These sessions are led by renowned entrepreneurship educators, including Professor Andy Penaluna, providing teachers with the tools and knowledge to foster an entrepreneurial mindset in their classrooms.
This challenge encourages young learners to work in teams to solve real-world problems, think creatively, and develop business ideas. From brainstorming to pitching their concepts, students experience the entire entrepreneurial journey in a fun and engaging way. The challenge fosters key skills such as teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, and financial literacy—essential tools for their future academic and career success.
How It Works:
Students are grouped into small teams and tasked with developing an innovative product or service.
They are guided through the process of idea generation, market research, budgeting, and branding, with support from experienced mentors.
Each team presents their final idea to a panel of judges, receiving feedback and encouragement to refine their entrepreneurial thinking.
Market Selling Day at Castle Gardens: One of the most exciting elements of the Primary Enterprise Challenge is the Market Selling Day held at Castle Gardens. On this special day, students get the chance to showcase their products and creative skills to the public in a real-world market setting. Each team sets up a stall to sell their products, interacting with customers, handling money, and learning firsthand about the realities of running a business.
The Market Selling Day provides a unique opportunity for students to put their entrepreneurial skills into practice, develop confidence in public speaking, and experience the satisfaction of seeing their ideas come to life. It’s a memorable and rewarding experience that brings the entire community together to celebrate the creativity and hard work of our young entrepreneurs.
By participating in the Primary Enterprise Challenge, students not only learn about the fundamentals of business but also develop essential life skills like communication, collaboration, and resilience. These activities empower young minds to think outside the box and approach challenges with confidence.
At Young Dragons CICC, we believe that nurturing entrepreneurial thinking at a young age helps children become more adaptable, creative, and resourceful. The Primary Enterprise Challenge is a fun and rewarding experience that allows students to discover their potential while having fun and developing skills that will last a lifetime.
Our 2023 Market Day was a great success with 40 schools taking part in the Primary Enterprise Challenge© this year. We are grateful to our sponsors Swansea University and Swansea BID for their generous contributions.
One of the key aspects of the Challenge is the provision of professional development support to teachers on how to embed enterprise and creativity in the curriculum. We are grateful to sponsors Swansea University School of Management and Swansea BID.
Special thanks go to Prof. Andy Penaluna for sharing his expertise by delivering professional learning sessions for teachers and to University of Wales Trinity St. David for supporting the launch of the project.
This is how we got started:
it doesn’t stop there
Following the Market Day, we visit all the schools to see the children give a presentation on their Enterprise Challenge experience. This gives them a chance to reflect on what they have learned, as well as an opportunity to hone their presentation skills. We often invite schools from the same cluster to join together for the presentation events and we draw on the support of members of the business community to act as ‘judges’ and provide valuable feedback. This helps to develop confidence and brings children together to learn from each other.
Developing presentation skills and confidence
More than 1500 children from 40 schools took part in the Primary Enterprise challenge 2023
A celebration of enterprise
One of the highlights of the Primary Enterprise Challenge is the celebration event that takes place at Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall. Hosted by local legend Kev Johns, schools are invited to attend to be presented with a certificate marking their participation in the project. We have lots of fun and games with ‘Heads & Tails’ a particular favourite.
Primary Enterprise Challenge 2022
What a day we had at the Primary Enterprise Challenge 2022 Market Day in Castle Gardens Swansea. The sun was shining as over 600 budding entrepreneurs from over 40 Swansea primary schools sold the amazing range of products they had been working on over the last few months.
The Challenge, which is run in partnership with Craigfelen Primary School and is sponsored by Welsh Government and Swansea Council, aims to support the Four Purposes of the new curriculum, and in particular to help children to become Enterprising, Creative Contributors. It is designed to give children an opportunity to improve their knowledge, refine the use of their key skills and apply them in new contexts.
Lord Mayor Cllr. Mike Day, as a long time advocate of enterprise in schools, came along to support the event and was as impressed as we all were with the creativity and innovation on display.
The children were then asked to make a presentation to a team of Enterprise Experts, drawn from the local business community, who visited the schools to find out what the children had learned from their experience of taking part in the Challenge.
Primary enterprise challenge 2021
In 2021 we were still in lockdown so we had to be creative and devise a Challenge that could be delivered online. Our theme was based on the United Nations International Year of Fruits and Vegetables and the challenge was to come up with a fruit or vegetable based product that could be sold that will promote the eating and growing of fruits and vegetables.
To do this, the children had to find out about fruits and vegetables: how and where they are grown, and the impact on the environment; why they are important for health and wellbeing; the nutritional value of different fruits and vegetables and problems with food shortages and waste etc.
Take a look at the videos below to find out how the Swansea primary schools tackled the Challenge in 2021. Despite having a difficult year, they came up with some amazing ideas for products and businesses - and they had fun!