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Business students compete in free enterprise
1 July, 2005
The University's Faculty of Business' Students in Free
Enterprise (SIFE) team will compete at the SIFE Australian Regional
Competition in Sydney on July 9.
In preparation for the competition, the six members of the SIFE
team have spent this year working on a number of projects across
the Sunshine Coast, including the presentation of 'budgeting made
easy' and 'business planning' workshops to the Nungeena Aboriginal
Corporation for Women's Business.
The Nungeena Aboriginal Centre is located in the Glass House
Mountains and has approximately 100 members. The women of Nungeena
wanted to know how to run their community centre as a sustainable,
self-efficient enterprise.
The students focussed on the areas of entrepreneurship and
financial literacy and will present the outcomes of their project
to a panel of business experts in Sydney next month.
Faculty of Business Student Club Administrator, Melissa Sheridan
said the students will compete against other university SIFE teams
from around Australia.
"Once a year, SIFE teams have the chance to showcase what they
have been working on in a national competition judged by some of
the most influential business leaders in Australia, like Arnott's,
Qantas, Woolworths, KPMG, Cadbury and Kimberly-Clark," Ms Sheridan
said.
"SIFE offers students the opportunity to develop leadership,
teamwork and communication skills through learning, practicing and
teaching the principles of free enterprise.
"Students use the skills and knowledge they acquire at
university to develop business plans and deliver workshops to
community groups to assist them with business problems or way to
improve their business.
"They then present the project to a panel of business leaders
for judging and feedback. It is an invaluable experience for the
students and gives them real experience finding business
solutions," she said.
The workshop participants are able to take away from the
presentation examples of how to instil the knowledge they gained
from the workshop to other members of their community.
About SIFE
SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) is an international non-profit
organisation active in over 1800 university campuses in more than
40 countries which mobilises university students to create economic
opportunity for others while discovering their own potential.
SIFE teams create economic opportunities in their communities by
organising outreach projects that teach: market economics,
entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills and business
ethics. Their projects are judged at competition on creativity,
innovation and effectiveness.