Startable 2017

On 4 August 2017, six finalist teams, comprising of 12 students, from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) competed for a $1000 prize on the ‘Demo Day’ of the #startable programme, which was held at ITE College Central.

“I decided to take part in #startable because I believe that my product can benefit others. If I do win, I will use the money to improve my product further,” said Cheng Zhi Hao, a Higher Nitec student, whose team developed a light and portable electric pill crusher.

The #startable Prelude workshop attracted 90 ITE students, where they participated in a one-day business design thinking workshop and vied to be nominated for the #startable bootcamp. About half of them were selected for a five-day overnight camp at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where they were mentored and worked in teams to generate their business ideas.

“The mentors were very good and gave very good advice on how we can start our own business and come up with business ideas. We came up with the idea of using Augmented Reality for Teaching (hence the team’s name, A.R.T). We’ve sounded out the idea to a few kindergartens like PCF Sparkletots and they have expressed interest in our product,” said Darshini D/O Peragash, a Higher Nitec student.

Organised by NTU and ITE annually since 2013, the #startable programme aims to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs.  The programme consists of a one-day Prelude workshop and a five-day bootcamp held in NTU. The bootcamp culminates in a business competition that awards a $5000 grant for each of the top six winning teams to develop their business ideas. The programme and awards are sponsored by the Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Education Fund and managed by NTU’s Nanyang Technopreneurship Center.