Whitireia wins Bright Ideas Challenge

On Tuesday night Grow Wellington announced Whitireia won the Education Category of the “Bright Ideas Challenge” with a business proposal for distance health training to international markets.

This is great recognition and a great achievement for Whitireia said Don Campbell, Chief Executive.  “A number of key staff worked on the initial idea and the submission for the challenge.  This win recognises their work and contribution” he said.

The inaugural “Bright Ideas Challenge” drew 1233 business ideas, each submitted to regional economic development agency, Grow Wellington, whose aim was to give organisations and individuals the connections and support needed to build successful businesses.  The idea submitted by Whitireia was around the development of a tertiary Occupational English for Nursing programme of study.

Whitireia put together a matrix of skills to hone the proposal - specialist nursing and ESOL, learning in new technologies, marketing and international business development and project management.

All the ideas received were evaluated by a panel of industry experts on a range of attributes including originality, potential and the ability of the idea to be supported and developed in Wellington.  The possibility of successful execution and clarity of execution were also factors in the panel evaluation.

The award won by Whitireia comes with a potential investment into further development of the Nursing English programme idea.  “We are looking forward to taking this idea to the next stage of its development” said Mr Campbell.

16 other category winners were announced at the awards function on Tuesday night, across a range of different industries.

The challenge was used by Grow Wellington as an opportunity to generate significant future commercialisation for the Wellington region.