Submissions for the 2010 First Year Challenge have now closed. The winners will be announced on Monday, 13 September 2010. To view the submissions, click here.

First Year Challenge Question

This is the inaugural First Year Student Challenge and we invite first year undergraduate business, commerce and finance students to solve a real-life business problem facing a not-for-profit organisation.

This year we would like you to examine a real-life business challenge facing The Smith Family. Entries will be judged on how effectively students solve the Challenge on three main criteria - technical knowledge, innovation and presentation.

You can tackle the task solo or form a team. Either way simply participating in these Challenges adds practical experience to your CV - and it's all up from there.

About the Smith Family

The Smith Family is an independent Australian children's charity, committed to unlocking opportunities for disadvantaged children and their families to participate more fully in society, using education as the key.

The Smith Family recognises that a key component in improving the opportunities for disadvantaged Australians is to improve the financial literacy of both parents and children. The ANZ Surveys of Adult Financial Literacy in Australia (ANZ, 2003, 2005, 2008) shows there is a direct correlation between low financial literacy and low income households.

To this end, The Smith Family run a series of programs aimed at improving understanding of financial matters and providing tools and techniques that will enable participants to achieve their financial goals. One of these programs is an accredited Financial Literacy Program designed to help people build their financial skills, knowledge and confidence. As a part of the program, participants are provided with budgeting tools which allow them to make more informed decisions about the use and management of their money.

The Smith Family is keen to innovate in this area and welcomes ideas to improve their financial tools and tailor them to the needs of younger persons; being people still in school or those who have recently left school. Therefore, they have engaged you, as a prospective Chartered Accountant, to complete the following challenge:

The Challenge

Part 1: Develop a budgeting tool which is specifically tailored to the needs of high school students. In developing this tool consideration should be given to:

• Income streams typically available to young people;
• The types of expenditure which are typically incurred by young people;
• Functionality and ease of use by young people when managing their finances; and
• The means in which young people would be most readily able to use the tool (e.g. will the system be electronic or a paper based system).

Part 2: Develop a presentation for your budgeting tool demonstrating:

• How the budget tool works;
• How the budget tool would appeal to young people; and
• How the budget tool would be implemented and applied.

Download a copy of the First Year Challenge question (PDF)

Key Dates (Sydney time)

Submissions open	9am, Sat 1 May 2010
Submissions close	12pm, Tues 31 Aug 2010
Judging period	12pm, Tues 31 Aug - 5pm, Sun 12 Sept 2010
Winners announced	9am, Mon 13 Sept 2010

Judging

The 2010 First Year Challenge will be judged by our team of Chartered Accountant consultants at Walter Turnbull.

Teams

Students can take the Challenge as individuals or with a partner. There is a maximum of two members per team and you will both need to be First Year students. Teams will have approximately four months to submit their solutions. When making a submission, students can choose from a range of formats including video, PowerPoint presentation, Word or Excel documents.