Adults have a lot to learn from children

The first stage of the competition for students of Entrepreneurial Classes took place on April 19–20. At that date, about a thousand schoolchildren from the Sverdlovsk region defended their business projects. The jury selected the most promising ones. And today 23 finalists appeared before the jury.

Future entrepreneurs from Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Pervouralsk, Kamensk-Uralsky, Zarechny, and Krasnoufimsk showed both their business acumen and originality. Thus, Elizaveta Dolgikh, Veronika Poponina and Polina Zubritskaya from school No.140 in Yekaterinburg presented a project for a private caving center. Taisiya Plugatarenko, Elizaveta Rostyagaeva, Anastasia Meshcheryakova, and Arseniy Olkhovikov from school No.44 in Nizhny Tagil decided to open a themed cafe dedicated to cosmonautics. By the way, the Sverdlovsk region is the homeland of all the Ural conquerors of the Universe.

The project of Alena Sosnina, a student at school No.34 in Kamensk-Uralsky, received the highest rating from experts. A schoolgirl dreams of creating Talitsa thermal springs. The business project scored 266 points out of 400 possible.

“Listening to how the competition participants talk about what they are striving for, we understand that even we, adults, have something to learn from them. Their flight of fancy enables them to come up with very interesting ideas, and we can envy their commitment to their goals: even today, they made the effort to think through every detail, including the specific location of their establishments or production facilities, as well as the exact payback period for projects. The guys also had positive emotions about the competition, especially from our innovation: this year the final was preceded by an entrepreneurship fair, where each participant could try to sell their project for internal game currency and purchase real goods, for example, handmade jewelry and desserts,” Anastasia Parshutina, supervisor of the Entrepreneurial Classes project and an organizer of the competition, said.

The winners were awarded EEYF orders and certificates of honor. The best finalist of the competition, who is graduating from school this year, earned five additional points to her Unified State Examination results when applying for admission to Ural State University of Economics.

Besides, the schoolchildren received souvenirs from the PRO group of companies, which together with USUE organized Entrepreneurial Classes in 2021. During the academic year, the project participants (students in 8–11 grades) attend classes taught not only by university teachers but also by Sverdlovsk businessmen. Schoolchildren learn how to build their own business: where to start, what difficulties may arise, and how they can be overcome. The formats of studies are master classes, business games, trainings, and startup days. Young Sverdlovsk region residents take part in accelerator, grants and creative competitions and then defend business ideas that they can later bring to life.