NKG in English

The entrepreneurial student’s competition (ESC) is a competition in innovation for students from the age of 6 to 16 years old. The competition is active all year round. The main goal of the competition is to activate the creativity in children and teenagers all over the country. Each fall a workshop takes plays where all ideas that made it to the finals are produces with the assistance of an instructor. The workshop then ends with a grand final celebration. Ideas are accepted until May 30th each year.

The purpose of ESC

• Making each individual realize their own creativity and growth through working with their own ideas
• Encourage and develop the initiatives of students and strengthen their self esteem
• Encourage entrepreneurship in the schools and increase awareness of children’s creative thinking in schools and in the working market

 ESC goals

• That all the 174 schools in Iceland use the competition as a tool in their entrepreneurship education
• That there will be working camps in all four regions of the country
• That 50% of all applications will be electronic
• That there will be a contact person from each school that manages all documentation and gets all the information to both teachers and students
• That by fall 2009 new teaching material will be ready both in paper folders as well as on electronic form

Involvement of partners 

Partners can support the ESC by direct financial donations as well as with cooperation that includes the following:

• Nomination of a representative to preliminary, middle and final stages of the evaluating committee
• Nominating a consultant for the workshop
• Nominating a representative to the judging committee
• Financial support to the competition

Managing procedures of the ESC

At the final celebration each fall next year’s competition is launched. After that all students from the age of 6 to 16 can start working on turning in their ideas. When an idea is ready it is important that the application is well prepared and turned in before April 30th each year.  

When the application time runs out, the ideas go through an assessment process. The ideas are valued in three stages, preliminary-, middle-, and final stages. The assessments are done by a committee. The committee chooses between 60 and 70 ideas that come through to the finals. That means that the children that reserve the honor are then invited to participate in the workshops that take plays in Foldaskóli in the fall. There all the ideas are further developed with the help of counselors. When all this is over the award committee starts to work on what ideas will receive awards. The president of Iceland Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson honors the competition by presenting the winning ideas an award in recognition at the final celebration, where there is also a gallery with a display of all the children’s ideas.  

Judgement 

In the preliminary stage the 16-20 representatives of the committee go through all of the received ideas, in four groups of three. Each group delivers a cretin amount of ideas that are left. During this stage the ideas are judged from a practical point of view. In the medium stage there are five representatives of the committee that go through all the ideas that made it through the preliminary stage, it is safe to predict that there are about 800 ideas that go through the medium stage where they are judged from a point of newness. During this stage companies, schools and institutions are consulted as to find out if the ideas already exist. In the final stage there are five representatives that judge the ideas that made it through the medium stage, from a marketing point of view. The ideas that go through all three stages are then evaluated and a special estimate is made for each idea, for further work during the workshop. 

The workshop takes plays Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00 in the beginning of the fall semester, for all the students that have an idea in the finals. The date is always advertised in advance. In the workshop it is predicted that there are 60-70 students and 15-20 instructors. The workshop takes plays in Foldaskóli with excellent conditions: working rooms, arts and crafts facilities and a computer room. In the workshop the ideas are produced further to display them in the best possible way for the judging committee and the gallery. It is a great honor to be invited to participate in the workshop no matter what the end results may be. The rescue organization Landsbjörg is in charge of a get together on the Saturday night after the working day. Parents, siblings and participants are invited to an unforgettable fun trip. Therefore it is really worth it to enter into the competition, compete and get selected through to the workshop.  

Judging

The judging committee is responsible for judging the competition. The judges are called in after the workshop is done where each one considers and looks at all the ideas carefully. The judges follow the set rules and deliver their decision on what idea goes in the first, second and third seat in each category. The director then reviews and collects the findings. The judging committee is appointed by the cooperating partners of the ESC  

The Final celebration

The entrepreneurship final celebration takes plays each fall following the workshop weekend. There all the winners are presented. Because of a large number of participants in the competition, the final celebration is limited for those who make it to the finals and their families. In august those that have been chosen to finals will receive a letter with the findings of the committee. There are about 4000 participants all in all were of 60 to 70 students are invited to come to the workshop.  

Subjects vs. ideas grouping

In the past a great responsibility of student participation in the ESC has been with the arts and crafts teachers. With increased flow of information the directors are hoping for a more diverse responsibility in the schools. By focusing on entrepreneurship in more subjects we are enabling the creative side of the children in a wider area, and by doing so broadening their horizon for endless possibilities in the future.  

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