Over the past nine years, thousands of students across Trinidad and Tobago have been empowered by the National Secondary School Entrepreneurship Competition.
Now in its ninth year, this groundbreaking initiative, a collaboration between corporate T&T and the Ministry of Education, continues to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking among young minds.
On Tuesday, hundreds of students attended the official launch of the 2025 competition.
According to Lisa Awai, Partner, Deals and Advisory Services at PwC Trinidad and Tobago, entrepreneurship goes beyond running a business – it is a mindset for driving positive change and national progress.
“This competition, as the MC would have said at the start, has made remarkable strides, delivering over 45,000 hours of training and impacting 4,500 lives over nine years. You, as participants, are at the forefront of a movement towards a prosperous future where innovation flourishes and technology leads the way.”
Defending champions St. James Secondary School is once again aiming for the top spot. Teacher Anand Baal said after placing second and third in previous years, 2024’s win was a testament to their hard work. However, he stressed that the real value lies in what students learn through the experience.
“For the students, they learn a lot about the practical side of entrepreneurship, and not in a regional and local sense but also in an international, as it relates to doing international trade, setting up in different countries, marketing strategies in different countries. They learn about finance, human resources, and a cadre of business terminologies.”
Cowen Hamilton Secondary School teacher, Adriana Sookraj-Dipchan, said while many students are focused on winning and prizes, they’re also excited about the broader opportunities the competition offers.
“It is imperative, look at our economy right now. Without the youths of our nation learning these skills and developing new ways to earn revenue for our country, what’s going to happen? What’s going to happen to the future of this country? So anything that helps emphasise and develop the skills, I think, is going to be very beneficial.”
Over the next six weeks, students will engage in intensive teamwork at their schools, completing daily tasks and worksheets that will determine the outcome of the competition.