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Free global programme · 2026 intake open now
The School Enterprise Challenge is a free, teacher-led programme where your students launch a real school business — real decisions, real customers, real profit. You bring the class. We give you every step.
Why teachers join
The school year you know
Students memorise theory they will never use again. You know they can do more — lead, decide, work as a team — but there is no time and no budget to design something real from zero.
The school year they'll remember
Your students share ideas, plan budgets, and make and sell a real product — and watch strangers pay real money for something they made. They finish the year believing “I can build things.” And you're the teacher who made it happen.
“For teachers, the School Enterprise Challenge creates a nice bond with students, different to our normal relationship. They see us as bringing something very practical which I think they enjoy!”
— Participating teacher, Uganda
Real results from real schools
And it lasts: students who take part go on to earn 3.5 times the average household income, and 97% become better at communicating and solving problems.
Francis — Philippines
Paul — Uganda
Ebenezer — Nigeria
Bhawna — India
Mariam — Pakistan
“If I had not participated in the School Enterprise Challenge, I would not have had the idea of creating my own business initiative. My current goals are to grow my business idea and to continue studying of course, that is the basis for success!”
Participating student, Nicaragua
“Community is our biggest strength. We always keep the needs and problems of our community in mind while we plan the functioning of the business every year.”
Participating students, India
Everything's already built
The whole challenge is organised into seven milestones. Some take only five minutes, and you never need to design a curriculum.
Step-by-step guides, videos and lesson plans — plus live question-and-answer sessions and support by WhatsApp and email.
Choosing ideas, market research, budgeting, selling — all built as classroom activities, not lectures. About 1–2 hours a week.
Certificates for students, teachers and principals — and over $5,000 in cash prizes for winning school businesses every year.
Never done anything like this? Start with a single five-minute activity and follow the milestones at your own pace.
Parents, leaders and your community watching students build something real — proof of what your school can do.
Real rewards
Cash prizes go to winning school businesses to reinvest in the business and the school — and there are awards for teachers and principals too.
Only for teams taking part on the ElevatED app — teams like yours.
Plus country winner prizes, the School Enterprise Challenge Legend Award, and certificates for every school that completes the challenge.
Seven milestones
A team photo and a short description: who you are, and what you want to use your profits for. That's the whole milestone.
A fun classroom activity with a ready-made template. Students imagine big futures — what becomes possible if they can build things themselves.
Students find a problem in their community, check what resources the school already has, compare their two best ideas, choose one — and plan how to raise their start-up money.
Market research, competitor research, a marketing and sales plan, and a financial plan — prices, costs and expected profit. Real planning, made simple for the classroom.
The business goes live — and the milestone is one photo of launch day. First customer, first sale — the first time it is all real.
The most important one: students report their results like a real company — profits, lessons learned, how the team worked together, and what they'd do differently.
One last photo to celebrate the journey — before certificates, awards and a school community that saw them do it.
2026 intake · August–September
Time until the business idea deadline (milestone 3):
There is plenty of time — schools that register now start with one five-minute activity.
Free · open to schools everywhere
Three quick questions so we can send you to the right place — then you sign up once, on ElevatED.
Create your free teacher account on ElevatED, the platform where the challenge runs. Your milestones, resources and team setup are all inside — and your teacher pack is the first thing you'll see.
Sign up free — it takes 2 minutes →Free for schools · choose “Teacher” on the welcome screen and you're in.
The School Enterprise Challenge platform is for teachers — ask a teacher at your school to register, and they can sign your whole class up for free.
Want to build a business by yourself? Our sister programme Enterprise Adventure (ages 13–19) isn't open right now — but you can join the waitlist and be first to know when it opens.
Join the Enterprise Adventure waitlist →Are you a teacher?
Press send in your email app and the team will get back to you about bringing the School Enterprise Challenge to the schools in your network. You can always reach us at Info@schoolenterprisechallenge.org.
Yes — completely. Registration, the ElevatED platform, all resources and competition entry are free. The programme is run by Teach A Man To Fish, a UK-registered charity.
All schools — pre-primary, primary, secondary and technical/vocational colleges — from any country. Universities are not eligible. A teacher or headteacher registers the school; the programme runs in English and Spanish.
Most teams spend around 1–2 hours per week, over 4–6 months. You can run it in lessons, as a club, or even through the holidays — and you set the pace.
Most teachers who join have never run a business before. You get step-by-step guides, lesson plans and real business examples — plus live question-and-answer sessions and support by WhatsApp and email at every stage.
Yes! Your school can form multiple business teams, each with their own idea — a team is usually around 15–45 students.
Yes — our sister programme, Enterprise Adventure, is for 13–19 year olds who want to create a business individually. You can register your interest at enterpriseadventure.org.
Registration for the 2026 intake is open until the end of September. Certificates for every school that completes — and over $5,000 in prizes. Next year, the winner photos could be your students.
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