Smart Young Mindz is entering its third year, following its re-introduction in 2006. 
Blue IQ and the Gauteng Department of Education and its media partner, the Sowetan,
have made a commitment to ensure that they reach each and every high school learner
in Gauteng as the competition grows in stature. This year we targeted 350 schools
(outreach to approximately 70,000 learners) of which 255 entries were received.
Each entry represents a team of five, thus 1,275 learners.

“Blue IQ, in line with Gauteng Provincial Government’s objectives is to ensure that the
Province remains a knowledge-based economy and that it raises its status, allowing us
to compete at a world level in producing innovators, inventors and engineers. The basis
of these industries is built on the study of maths and science.  It was with this in mind
that Blue IQ developed Smart Young Mindz”, said Ms Isaacs-Mpulo, Chairperson of the
Blue IQ Board”.

The strategic objectives of SYM remain constant, which aims at stimulating interest
among learners in the fields of maths, science, technology and entrepreneurship,
areas that are identified both provincially and nationally, as critical to form the
backbone of a competitive and growing economy. SYM encourages them to submit
smart business ideas through the means of an annual competition, it also motivates
learners to investigate problems, wants and needs in their communities, and to
generate ideas for products or services that will fill a gap in the market that will
become commercially viable. 

Further to the outreach and more importantly, Blue IQ and its partners will
ensure that the competition is having the desired impact on the learners, ie to
encourage their interest in maths & science, resulting in tertiary education and
careers in these fields of study.

Although the competition has been targeted with the help of the GDE, analysis of the
competition still show that more needs to be done to ensure a superior quality to the
content of the entries and this year the GDE assigned dedicated SYM facilitators to work
closely with the learners to make sure that their ideas were executed professionally. 
The competition format changed to a more decentralised approach to ensure further
mentoring.  Regional finals were held at District level, selecting only the top three teams
to go through to the finals, resulting in 45 teams of 5 (215 learners).

This year’s awards ceremony was replaced with a final expo giving the learners the
opportunity to present their projects to the judges, allowing for two way interaction as
well as to allow for transparency among themselves, showing them first hand, what
makes a winning entry. The expo served as a platform to showcase works, but also
to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit among the learners, who were expected to
‘market’ their products through creativity, eg attractive stands, etc.  The exhibition
was in a class of its own and professionally presented.

“The number of entries has more than doubled year on year, but whilst figures
improve, we were mindful of quality versus quantity and therefore restructured the
format of the competition to ensure good quality entries to assist in accelerating the
growth of critical skills, said Ms Amanda Nair, CEO of Blue IQ”

Prize money

1st Prize

R45,000

2nd Prize

R30,000

3rd Prize

R15,000

Media Queries, please contact:

Mandla Radebe

Office of the Premier, Mr Firoz Cachalia

083 288 8915