Students to win huge $ prizes in the Kangan Batman TAFE Young Entrepreneurs Business Plan Competition
11 November 2003
On Tuesday 18 November, one lucky Kangan Batman TAFE tourism student will win $4,000 to take the trip of a lifetime.
The $4,000 prize will be awarded to the winner of the inaugural Kangan Batman TAFE Young Entrepreneurs Business Plan Competition.
The competition was open to all of the institute’s final year tourism and hospitality Advanced Diploma students, and required entrants to develop a business plan for a viable new Victorian tourism business.
Kangan Batman TAFE received funding from the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources to run the competition. The funding was part of the National Innovation Awareness Strategy's Promoting Young Entrepreneurs Initiative, a national scheme that aims to promote entrepreneurial activity in Australia.
The competition has been judged by independent judges from Tourism Training Victoria, Tourism Victoria and Retire Invest.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at Kangan Batman TAFE’s Broadmeadows campus on 18 November 2003 at 2.30pm.
Victorian Senator Tsebin Tchen, representing The Hon. Ian Macfarlane MP, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, will present the prizes.
First prize for the best business plan is $4,000, second prize is $1,500, third prize is $750 and fourth prize is $500. Prizes are to be taken as travel, to expand the students’ industry knowledge. The Rotary Club of North Melbourne has also provided several encouragement awards, which will also be presented at the ceremony.
Background information
The competition process
Research study tour
In May this year, the teaching staff took the students on a three-day research study tour to prepare them to develop business plans for viable businesses. The students stayed at the Grampians YHA Eco-Hostel in Halls Gap while touring the region and meeting tourism operators to understand what it takes to establish a successful tourism business. The students also learnt about best practice in eco-tourism, which is a key theme of their studies.
Guest speaker lecture series/research phase
Over the following months, the students continued the research phase, which included excursions to meet tourism business operators in the Sunbury and Dandenong Ranges areas. Many business operators also gave up their time to speak to the students on-campus.
While class time focussed on developing the students’ skills in business planning, the students were required to conduct their own extensive research to support their business plan concept. This ranged from market research to learning about government tourism and town planning for the region in which their proposed business would be based.
Writing the business plans
The students were required to submit their finalised business plans by 16 October 2003. They were required to include the following in their entries: a business profile, SWOT analysis (the proposed business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), market analysis, financial analysis, and sales and marketing strategies. The entries were also judged on the viability of the proposed business and the presentation of the business plan.
Background to the competition
Kangan Batman TAFE’s Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Department takes a unique teaching approach in its tourism and hospitality Advanced Diplomas, focusing on developing the students’ entrepreneurial and business skills.
This approach recently won the department the 2003 Outstanding Group Contribution to Tourism and Hospitality Training Award, presented by Tourism Training Australia (TTA) at the national TTA Tourism and Hospitality Trainers’ Awards.
Since 1999, the Advanced Diploma training program has been based around intensive preparation of the students to enter the State Government’s Tourism Student Business Initiative (TSBI), a competition which requires students to develop business plans for viable tourism business ideas.
This teaching strategy, which includes an industry guest speaker lecture series and research study-tour to Halls Gap, has helped numerous Kangan Batman students win the top awards in the prestigious TSBI, beating students from universities and TAFEs all over Victoria.
Kangan Batman TAFE students’ TSBI prizes:
- 1999 – 1st prize ($8,000 overseas study tour), 2nd, 3rd and 4th places.
- 2000 – 1st prize ($8,000 overseas study tour), 3rd and 5th places.
- 2001 – 2nd, 5th and 6th places.
- 2002 – 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, and a Special Commendation.
As the TSBI did not run in 2003, the Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Department successfully applied for Commonwealth Government funding to conduct its own business plan competition, to ensure its students still gained the benefits of exposure to business planning.
