Although they are still completing their training, the more than 500 Alava students participating this year in the ninth edition of the STARTInnova business ideas contest promoted by EL CORREO are beginning to see the possibility of creating their own company as something closer. In February they will present their ideas before a court, but until then they still have time to develop them and try to gain a foothold in the final of the contest in which 15 schools from Alava participate.
Up to 66 Egibide students are learning entrepreneurship by working the Canvas model in class with their teachers Xabier Sainz de Baranda, Isabel García and Noelia Misiego. "Many have developed ideas related to mechanical workshops or the hotel industry, companies in the service sector," says the first. Thus, for example, Andy, Sebastián and N'tji have thought of clothes pegs that, through humidity, change color when the garments are dry and it is time to take them down. An exercise that helps them put themselves in the place of an entrepreneur. “They want to sell their products to the whole world and they need to find a potential market. The conceptual is what is most difficult for them, ”confesses his irakasle Sainz de Baranda.
The Mendizabala Vocational Training Institute participates again in STARTInnova after winning the 2019-2020 edition thanks to some gutters that cleaned themselves. They repeat this course presenting industrial proposals but also others not seen before in this contest. For example, the 2IE2 team, made up of Soufiane, David, Diego, Unai and Umar, has designed a heating drawer that crushes the plastic waste generated at home so that it takes longer to lower it into the container. It will be sustainable as it will work with a manual lever. By Barber -made up of Ane, Imane, Adil and Zihara- has created a hairdressing chair that moves thanks to electricity. Irati, Ibai, Guillermo and Iñigo form Click Manager, a local business website for municipalities, and Eder Films, the audiovisual production group of Miriam, Oier, Andre, Ruth and Silvia will present a short film in the final. «The project consists of a company that promotes short films on various topics. If we reach the final, we would like to project it and tell the story about it”, explains his teacher Olga Bengoetxea.
Ideas for children
Ana Ruiz de Gauna guides 13 students of the higher education training cycle in Presentation of Mary while they develop projects related to her field. Ambigroup thinks of a toy library located in a shopping center that allows parents to go shopping or do business before picking up their children; One squared, in a spoon that helps children to eat by themselves; and Héctor, Idoia and Estíbaliz design a school farm near Vitoria. "We have worked on issues such as managing clients and resources, marketing, the steps that must be taken to become known and advertised... This is an interesting experience where the objective, more than winning, is for them to learn", Ruiz de Gauna values.
Although most of the participating schools in STARTInnova are in the capital, six students from the IES Aniturri de Agurain also participate in the initiative. Ainhoa, Irati and Mikel have thought of a mobile phone with a built-in printer, similar to a Polaroid camera. For their part, María, Malen and Tirfe devised an application for students to manage their doubts, materials and timetables. "They still take two online classes from home and dedicate them to developing these projects autonomously," explains their teacher Irati Mujika.
