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Ammon News - More than 4,000 students from 114 schools around Jordan participated in the Enterprise Business Challenge (EBC) program in 2022.
Running for the 11th year in a row, the program was administered by INJAZ, a local non-profit organization, in partnership with the Prince’s Trust International (PTI).

Out of the 12 nominated teams, a team of 5 boys, "Excellence Team" from Zaid Bin Haritha Secondary School for Boys in Karak won second place. The team worked on a project based on manufacturing educational kits with simple and complex electrical circuits, according to an INJAZ statement.

The EBC's winning teams highlighted the significance of the program and the skills they gained on their journey.

15-year-old Khair Al-Deen Suheimat, the team’s leader said that the project aims to teach children aged 8 to 10 years on how to deal with simple and complex electrical circuits.
"There were no research tools available for us before, but through the program with INJAZ we were able to accomplish a lot in our project," Suheimat said.

According to Suheimat, the kit includes LED, board, wires, resistive battery and other things, in addition to a booklet that will be added to help children operate the electrical circuit.

Suheimat indicated that the EBC was a "unique experience", especially after the pandemic and the inability to do anything or even leave the house.

"It was great to interact with other teams and to be able to learn, work and have fun at the same time," he added.

Suheimat noted that volunteers helped them to organize their time, taught them how to deal with buying and selling a product, how to market it and improve it, which is "very important", he said.

He indicated that the lack of resources imposed a great challenge on their progress, such as slow computers and internet.

Mufleh Mubaideen, team 2 volunteer expressed his pride with the team’s achievement especially in overcoming the challenges they faced during the program.

"I made sure every team member feel that they are part of something big, as well as highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship for them and for our country," Mubaideen explained.

"I hope that I have implanted this idea and its importance within the students so that they can take it with them until they grow up to become actual entrepreneurs and business owners instead of relying on jobs in the future," he added.

Mubaideen noted that the training also focused on the idea of cooperation and good competition between teams/team members.

Third place winners, Champions Team of 6 from King Abdullah II School in Tafileh, whose project was a delivery service company utilizing both a website and a mobile application.

Baha’a Fosoul, a team member, said that the project’s idea came from the fact that Tafileh Governorate lacks delivery services and it is "extremely difficult" to get anything delivered.

"Tafileh is a remote area, so we thought about the delivery project and created a website and an application after taking a C++ course last year which helped us a lot, in addition to using our computer curriculum and with the help of some experts," Fosoul explained.

He indicated that the people living in the area also loved and supported the idea as "they are in dire need of a good delivery service and they are very excited to have it as it will solve many issues."

"Creating the website was very challenging as it took a long time and sometimes we had to redo it," Fosoul said.

He indicated that the EBC experience helped him and his team to gain more self-confidence, as well as thinking outside the box and learning the importance of entrepreneurship and cooperation between people.

"I aspire to become a businessman in the future as this helped me get inspired and involved in entrepreneurship from a young age," Fosoul continued.

Wala Shehadeh, team 3 volunteer indicated that "being a realistic model of an entrepreneur woman as I have my own project, Al-Walaa Mobile, has inspired and motivated students to work hard and believe in themselves and get more excited."

Shehadeh said that students’ excitement was very "unique" as they are hungry for success and production, "these students are the future of entrepreneurship and I am very happy to have had the opportunity to train them," she added.

Shehadeh mentioned that the lack of resources imposed a great challenge on the team but they still "persevered and continued to work on their project with the help of INJAZ," she said.