Students sell their wares at trade fair

CHRIS HILLOCK/Waikato Times

GETTING PREPARED: Left to right, Hana-te Kowhai Ohia, putting up poster, far left, Clarrisa-Noelle Heke, Emma Smith, Michaela Davis, Mekayla Wikaira, from Nga Tai aatea Wharekura, sell a book, He Hokinga Mahara.

The next generation of Waikato business people sold their newly developed products at the Young Enterprise Scheme trade fair at Wintec's Bill Gallagher Centre.

High school students from throughout the region have been developing products for the annual competition, which gets teenagers to run a business.

The PAX (Publishing at its Xtreme) team from Nga Taiatea Wharekura said they had learned about intellectual property rights as they collected stories, proverbs and songs from iwi throughout the country for a book they plan to market to Maori education providers throughout Waikato.

Hana-Te Kowhai Ohia said they had an anxious wait for the first couple of months while waiting for permission from a number of iwi to include their stories.

"Some of them had taken a while," she said.

Hamilton Girls' High School team K-Gaps planned to give the proceeds from their printed singlets to Women's Refuge.

"At first we thought we would do a service and fundraise as much as we could," Kelsie Woolley said.

"But then we thought it would be better to sell a product.

"People our age like singlets if they have something cool on them."

The photographs used on the singlets had not been selected to represent Women's Refuge, she said. But, featuring a woman next to a railway, the image was evocative of the long journey abused women faced.

The students are responsible for planning, budgeting and decision-making for their products.

They are guided by business mentors in the programme.

- © Fairfax NZ News