EQI is delighted to welcome Ipswich State High School (SHS) to the International Student Programs.
Ipswich is Queensland’s oldest provincial city and is renowned for its architectural, natural and cultural heritage. The small, friendly city of around 200,000 residents is located in South East Queensland, approximately 40 minutes’ drive from Brisbane and an hour from the Gold Coast.
Ipswich SHS offers students an array of high quality programs and activities, including:
Queensland education initiative to shape young entrepreneurs
A Queensland consortium led by Indooroopilly State High School (SHS) with the support of the Department of Education and Training International (DETi) is fostering a new generation of young entrepreneurs.
The Queensland Student Innovation and Entrepreneurs Alliance (QSIEA) which includes leading businesses and universities, launched ‘gen [in]’, a state-wide student innovation challenge, in May.
Local and international students from across Queensland were invited to pitch an innovative business idea to a panel of business adjudicators for the opportunity to receive mentoring from business and academic professionals. The program will enable Queensland high school and tertiary students (aged 14 to 21) to develop business skills and bid for seed capital to bring their business ideas to life.
Nathan Pugliese, former Head of Department, Student Services at Indooroopilly SHS has been instrumental in designing the program to enable young people to build an entrepreneurial mindset to develop innovations for profit, employability, social change or education.
“Indooroopilly SHS is a community of forward thinkers so we focus on preparing students to become productive global citizens,” said Mr Pugliese.
“Entrepreneurs have to be resilient and teaching young people to be resilient is a major aim of this project. It can be very hard for these skills to be effectively taught without the appropriate context.”
Mr Pugliese was a member of the Griffith Master of Business Administration (MBA) team whose innovative business plan for a potable water supply in the Asia-Pacific took out third place in the US$100,000 G20 Global Business Challenge in 2014.
As a successful innovator, Mr Pugliese believes one of the greatest benefits of gen[in] is the emphasis on global connectedness, enabling students to learn the art of networking and work in teams to innovate for profit, social enterprise or education in a global business environment.
As a participant in the gen[in] initiative, Indooroopilly SHS student Ghazaleh from Iran is learning new skills and helping to shape the program for future students. So far, she has attended a development workshop hosted by Griffith University (GU) and a five-week program at The University of Queensland (UQ) Idea Hub.
“Gen[in] is a great opportunity for me as I don't have much experience around business. I get to work with successful people and hear their stories, get inspired and learn not to be scared of failure,” Ghazaleh said.
Among Ghazaleh’s favourite activities was a brainstorming challenge working in a team of students from different schools and universities to devise creative ideas and solutions to different scenarios.
“We had to be creative, think fast and work together, which was what made it fun and exciting for me,” she said.
“The most valuable things I learned were how to make a business plan and understand the different stages of preparing my idea for launch. I was also able build my confidence and know that no matter what my ideas are, I can always put myself out there and know all of them have a chance to be a success.”
The gen[in] project is one of six projects
announced by the Queensland Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon. Curtis Pitt, as part of the Queensland Government’s AUS$6 million
IET Partnership Fund. The initiative will provide annual funding of AUS$1.2 million to eligible consortia to deliver projects aligned with Queensland’s international education and training industry.
The QSIEA consortium includes GU, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), UQ, DETi, Sarina Russo Group, Little Tokyo Two, and Car Advice Pty Ltd.
Indooroopilly SHS alumni and founder of CarAdvice.com, Alborz Fallah, is one of the Queensland CEO’s chosen to adjudicate the innovation challenge finals in November. Mr Fallah has experienced the entrepreneurial journey first-hand, starting a car review website that grew into business that sold to Nine Entertainment for AUS$35million.
Queensland school triumphs at world robotics competition
Students from Chancellor State College (SC) defeated 62 international teams to win the ‘
First Lego League Razorback Invitational’ held at the University of Arizona in May. The international competition featured teams from all over the world, including the USA, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
The Chancellor SC ‘Robokings’ team represented Australia after winning their Queensland regional heat and the ‘Design and Strategy’ award at the National Championships in 2016.
“We had a great time and a very successful trip,” said Simon Richardson, Engineering Teacher at Chancellor SC and the Robokings’ coach. “This is the best Australian result in the 20-year history of the worldwide competition.”
Peter Kelly, Chancellor SC’s former Executive Principal, congratulated the students and teachers on their world-class performance and thanked the team sponsors, including EQI and the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC).
Chancellor SC maintains a strong focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and extracurricular activities. Its Engineering Futures Program is delivered though the school’s innovative
Science and Engineering Education Centre (SEEC) developed with USC.
The SEEC partnership has enabled the Engineering Futures Program to become the hub for engineering educational pathways for primary, secondary and tertiary students.
Professional Visit builds valuable education connections with India
In June, we were delighted to host a group of 29 outstanding education leaders from India. Representing 11 Indian states, the participants visited some of Queensland’s most successful government schools. It was a great opportunity for local education leaders to connect with like-minded colleagues from overseas.
Queensland has long been recognised as a high performer in school improvement and international education. Supported by state-wide improvement measures, Queensland has again shown remarkable outcomes in its pursuit of excellence in education, making it a perfect place for training elite leaders of education from around the world.
Ji-Sedai scholarship students attend new EQI leadership program
During the Term 3 break, our 60 Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education ‘Ji-Sedai’ scholarship students attended EQI’s new Leadership Development program in Cairns, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
The two-day program was custom-designed and delivered by EQI in partnership with Central Queensland University (CQ University) and TAFE Queensland International. It aims to develop students’ leadership skills, provide a taste of tertiary education in Queensland and give them a chance to network with current tertiary students.
The program included employability skills, mentoring and leadership development workshops, along with a series of presentations highlighting tertiary study options, globalised study and careers and campus experiences.
We wish to thank everyone involved in the event, particularly our guest speaker, Mr Takahiko Watabe, Deputy Consul-General of Japan (Queensland), who talked to the students about their education and how to use their Queensland study experience to become ‘global citizens’.