{"id":36447,"date":"2023-10-20T14:44:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/new-2-5-million-accelerator-with-big-corporate-partners-aims-to-drive-innovative-stem-education-in-australia-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:44:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:44:07","slug":"new-2-5-million-accelerator-with-big-corporate-partners-aims-to-drive-innovative-stem-education-in-australia-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/new-2-5-million-accelerator-with-big-corporate-partners-aims-to-drive-innovative-stem-education-in-australia-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"New $2.5 million accelerator with big corporate partners aims to drive innovative STEM education in Australia &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/l_pwc1.jpg\" alt=\"PWC\" title=\"PWC\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Twenty tech entrepreneurs working on a range of innovative STEM ventures have been chosen for a new $2.5 million accelerator program.<\/p>\n<p>Launched by PwC, the 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century Minds Accelerator program is focusing on startups and founders that are aiming to rapidly scale digital literacy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwc.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PwC<\/a> Managing Partner Tony Peake says the quantity and quality of applications is very promising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt proves overwhelmingly that not only is there a need for support to get STEM education initiatives off the ground but that there is depth of innovative talent out there,\u201d Peake says in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe business community just needs to nurture and support that talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Selected initiatives will see the development of easy-to-use 3D design software for K-8 classrooms, playgrounds incorporating STEM exploration spaces, robotics and coding workshops and virtual learning environments.<\/p>\n<p>Participants will benefit through a fully funded position in an accelerator program by either Education Changemakers, Foundation for Young Australians or Impact Academy and Social Traders.<\/p>\n<p>They will also have the opportunity to share in $400,000 worth of PwC services, work with mentors and pitch to investors in November.<\/p>\n<p>Peake says another aim of the program is to improve outcomes for underrepresented groups, including students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, Indigenous Australians and women.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chiefscientist.gov.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australia&#8217;s Chief Scientist<\/a> Dr Alan Finkel welcomes the investment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThousands of Australian students can be entrepreneurs if we open their minds and nurture their talent,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachforaustralia.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Teach For Australia<\/a> founder Melodie Potts Rosevear, who supports the program, says she has high hopes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an important initiative to collectively harness the potential of young Australians to become the next generation of STEM leaders,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The program is supported by a number of major corporations including Google, Microsoft and CPA Australia.<\/p>\n<p><i>Follow\u00a0StartupSmart\u00a0on <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StartUpSmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Facebook<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startupsmartnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, and <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/startupsmart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a><i>. <\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty tech entrepreneurs working on a range of innovative STEM ventures have been chosen for a new $2.5 million accelerator<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}