Fort St. John school to host entrepreneurship fair for the second time

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A middle school in Fort St. John will be hosting the second edition of an entrepreneurship fair. 

Bert Bowes Middle School will be hosting the fair on Friday, March 6th from 9.30 a.m. to 12.15 p.m. at the school located on 106th Street. 

Jason Gill, principal at Bert Bowes Middle School, told Energeticcity.ca the entrepreneurship fair is the “culmination” of the ‘entrepreneurship eight’ class. 

The class is an introduction to business management for kids, covering financial awareness, creating a business plan and developing a product from an idea. 

He said: “We do it for grade eight…at the end of the three months, after they go through the different things, they actually create the business plan and content.” 

This course has been offered for the first time this school year and Gill hopes to offer it for the next school year as well. 

“Right now, we’re still in the planning stages for next year, based upon staffing and what our student numbers will be, but we’re hopeful we’ll be able to offer it again next year,” he said, adding students have received the course “really” well. 

At the fair, which will be set up in the student lounge, each of the students’ businesses will have a spot where kids can come, look at the product and if interested, they can buy it. 

“We wanted to give kids a chance to experience…[and] create content for careers.” 

Gill said this course was started to get students interested in money management, make a business for themselves, grow their content, produce and make a future career path for themselves. 

Gill said the students “love” having their product up for sale at the fair. 

“I think they’re quite happy with what they’re creating and [it’s] giving them a chance to make some money, [so it] is always a cool thing,” he said. 

The school held an entrepreneurship fair on November 6th from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., which he said was well received.  

He said: “Every class came to the student lounge to visit it and we had a lot of parents coming in to purchase items. 

“Myself and a few other teachers purchased quite a few of the items that were for sale and I’ve got some of the content on my teacher table.” 

Some of the products that will be up for sale at the fair include bead work, lip scrubs, squishes, bracelets, lip balms, stress busters, crochets, phone charms, woodwork, catapult toys and more, with prices ranging from $2 to $50. 

Gill is encouraging the public to come around 11 a.m. to stroll through the student businesses.