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The Minister's Innovation Challenge
The challenge provides opportunities for Year 8 students to engage in entrepreneurial learning. With support from industry mentors, students apply design thinking, developing innovative solutions to a local issue or problem.
Topic: Career development
The Minister’s Innovation Challenge provides an opportunity for Year 8 students at Western Australian public schools to engage in design thinking and entrepreneurial education.
In 2026, 40 teams of 6 to 8 students will take part in the 6-week challenge. The challenge commences at the start of Term 4 and will be facilitated by Bloom the Centre for Youth Innovation.
Each team will develop innovative solutions to local issues or problems, supported by their school and an industry mentor. The 5 top-ranked teams will share the $35,000 cash prize and some of the final pitches will be showcased during an online exhibition with the Minister for Education.
Nominations for this year’s challenge will open at the start of Term 3, 2026
Public school staff can find more information on Ikon, including how to Nominate a student team for The Minister’s Innovation Challenge 2026.
For more information on key dates, refer to The Minister's Innovation Challenge 2026.
The Minister’s Innovation Challenge informative video
The challenge provider, Bloom, offers a general overview of what the 6-week challenge will entail. The video also features teachers involved in last year’s challenge.
Past participating schools and their pitches
Teams worked with an industry mentor to identify and solve a local issue or problem. Teachers were supported to help students use design thinking to develop innovative solutions. A summary of the problem statements and solutions developed by the school teams in 2025 is listed below.
Previous years
Feedback
The feedback below captures the sentiments of the teachers who have participated in the challenge.
It showed us that we are more capable than we think.
Over the six weeks, students demonstrated clear growth in teamwork, communication, organisation and problem solving.
The real-world nature of the project encouraged students to take initiative and think independently.
The online resources, dedicated Teams workspace, communication from organisers and clarity of expectations were all exceptional.