The all-female team from St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School was crowned the winner of this year’s START competition, a project-based learning programme that brings the experience of a start-up incubator to Scottish schools.
The group of S6 students, made up of Jovita, Elodie, Amy, Emma, and Maja, wanted to come up with a solution to address the issue of violence against women.
Their idea pairs existing tracking technology with jewellery to create a wearable and discreet safety feature.
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A pendant, which could be added to a bracelet, necklace, or worn as an earring, would pair to an app holding pre-programmed emergency contact details.
The pendant would contain a button which would send the user’s location to an emergency contact when activated.
Their business idea also includes the user’s ability to input their estimated time of arrival at a location.
If the user doesn’t arrive, emergency contacts are then notified.
Through their business pitch, the girls highlighted that their ambition for this product idea is to not only make women and girls feel safer but to start a wider conversation about violence against women and girls, and encourage men to become allies.
Part of their prize includes the opportunity to deliver the pitch at the Scottish EDGE Awards Dinner on May 20, putting them in front of Scottish entrepreneurs and business people.
They also have the chance to participate in the University of Strathclyde’s Inspire Summit.
In addition, they have also each received a £100 Amazon voucher as well as a £500 Amazon voucher for their school.
The competitive START pitch evening held at Glasgow Science Centre on March 25 featured eight teams from four Glasgow schools: John Paul Academy, Knightswood Secondary School, St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School and The High School of Glasgow.
Phil Ford, founder of START and director of innovation at The High School of Glasgow, said: “The team from St Thomas Aquinas should be congratulated for taking the START title this year with their ingenuous and important idea.
“The girls noticed a problem that could directly affect them, and they’ve come up with a solution to address this.
“I want to extend my congratulations to every single participant who worked so hard for the past nine months across our design thinking, entrepreneurship and storytelling programme to not only master new skills, but create an entirely new business idea which offers innovative solutions to real-world problems.
“The learning, insights, mindset and connections fostered across START will prove invaluable for whatever path they take next.”
This pilot programme was given funding of more than £65,000 from the Scottish Government’s Entrepreneurial Education Pathways Fund.
