The Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools En­tre­pre­neur­ship Com­pe­ti­tion (NSSEC) is cel­e­brat­ing nine years of spark­ing big ideas in class­rooms and turn­ing stu­dents in­to busi­ness thinkers. This year, 128 teams are tak­ing part, putting their cre­ativ­i­ty, prob­lem-solv­ing and team­work to the test as they dis­cov­er what it takes to build a busi­ness from the ground up.

NSSEC is a six-week, dig­i­tal­ly dri­ven busi­ness sim­u­la­tion that al­lows stu­dents to run vir­tu­al com­pa­nies, take risks, make de­ci­sions, and see the re­sults play out in re­al time. “It’s an en­gag­ing and rel­e­vant ex­pe­ri­ence and is not just learn­ing from a text­book,” says Sophia Stone, Di­rec­tor of NSSEC at 3Stone Con­sult­ing, “but it re­al­ly is us­ing gam­i­fi­ca­tion to teach young peo­ple how to start a busi­ness. Whether you are in Ma­yaro, To­ba­go, or Port of Spain, you can take part. We have seen stu­dents who be­gin with a ca­su­al in­ter­est trans­form in­to pas­sion­ate, strate­gic thinkers, ready to turn their tal­ents in­to some­thing mean­ing­ful for their fu­ture”.

This year, NSSEC will al­so fea­ture a youth mar­ket in De­cem­ber, where past par­tic­i­pants who have al­ready start­ed busi­ness­es can show­case their prod­ucts and ser­vices. “We think this is go­ing to be one of the most ex­cit­ing new el­e­ments of the pro­gram,” Stone ex­plains. “Stu­dents will get to see peers who once sat where they are, and now have a re­al busi­ness to show for it. It is a pow­er­ful way to con­nect ed­u­ca­tion to re­al-world im­pact.”

The num­bers sup­port their en­thu­si­asm. In­de­pen­dent stud­ies show over 84 per cent of past par­tic­i­pants were in­spired to start or con­sid­er start­ing a busi­ness. Some have launched ven­tures rang­ing from ve­g­an dessert brands to youth en­tre­pre­neur­ship net­works, prov­ing NSSEC is a launch­pad for fu­ture busi­ness own­ers.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to grap­ple with the need for eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, NSSEC is prepar­ing a gen­er­a­tion of job cre­ators who see en­tre­pre­neur­ship not as a dis­tant dream but as a prac­ti­cal way to build the fu­ture they want.

About NSSEC

The Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools En­tre­pre­neur­ship Com­pe­ti­tion (NSSEC) is a six-week gam­i­fied busi­ness sim­u­la­tion that equips sec­ondary school stu­dents with prac­ti­cal en­tre­pre­neur­ial skills. Since its in­cep­tion in 2017, NSSEC has trained more than 4,500 stu­dents, de­liv­ered over 45,000 hours of high-im­pact busi­ness train­ing, and in­spired hun­dreds of stu­dent-led busi­ness­es. NSSEC is proud­ly sup­port­ed by Shell Trinidad and To­ba­go, Massy Foun­da­tion, Guardian Group, First Cit­i­zens, and PwC Trinidad and To­ba­go. For more in­for­ma­tion, vis­it www.ttnssec.com or email ad­min@ttnssec.com