João Lobo, Diogo Serra, Valentim Lopes and Gonçalo Ramos are 17-year-old students in the penultimate year of secondary education at Colégio Marista de Carcavelos, and were the winners of the 16th National A Empresa programme Competition promoted by Junior Achievement Portugal (JAP). This week they travel to Istanbul, Turkey, to represent their country, competing with the winners of the best projects from each of the 40 participating nations. The prize for the winning team in Portugal has been provided by the Galp Foundation, which has paid for the team´s travel and accommodation expenses for the event.
The four young students have developed a technology that, applied to manual wheelchairs, transforms them into electric models – simply by attaching a device with a small electric motor – at a much lower cost for the user. In a country where low salaries make it difficult for many people to afford a wheelchair with an electric motor, and aware of the fact that there are around 2100 Portuguese citizens in need of one, the challenge for João, Diogo, Valentim and Gonçalo was to find a solution to this problem.
The Colégio Marista de Carcavelos team responsible for creating the Willchair visited Galp to present the winning project in the “A Empresa” competition
Talking to Energiser, after the presentation made to the Galp team, and in preparation for this week's international competition, the developers of the WillChair project said that this technology “doesn´t invent the wheel, but adapts it to cars”, metaphorically speaking. Or in other words, as João Lobo explains, “we used standard electric bicycles and transformed them to adapt the system to wheelchairs”. “It's all about using what´s available and working on it, which facilitates the entire process in the end”, adds Diogo Serra. And this was the easy part, they guarantee.
The initial challenge was to present the idea without having a prototype to show. “We went to associations to explain everything and people didn't understand the idea”, says Gonçalo Ramos. Moreover, he adds, “we lacked credibility, because all people saw was a group of 17-year-olds with nothing to show”. However, we gradually built up our credibility and our participation in other competitions served as a business card.
The presentation made at Galp, which is similar to the one to be made in Turkey, involved the team explaining all the factors that enabled them to kick start the solution, its advantages and differentiating features, as well as a duly structured and well-reasoned business plan.
The Willchair project consists of a small motor designed to be attached to a manual wheelchair in order to transform it into an electric model.
FOSTERING YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The A Empresa programme, an annual challenge aimed at schools to promote the creation of teams of entrepreneurial students has involved more than 400,000 students in Portugal since 2005 through the Junior Achievement Portugal (JAP). Originating in the USA in 1919, this concept has a very simple objective: “to make entrepreneurship in education a reality, to challenge students in schools to be entrepreneurs, to challenge the status quo and not always wait for things to happen”, explains Gonçalo Duque, the promoter of the project in Portugal. “We have similar programmes geared to first-year primary school children right through to university students”, he reveals.
The WillChair project arose from a secondary education programme, the first phase of which consists of students being challenged to work on entrepreneurial ideas in the classroom. “Basically, they solve an existing problem with a solution that still hasn´t been found”, explains Gonçalo Duque. Afterwards, an intermediate phase involves the teams presenting their ideas on a regional basis, followed by the national competition, the outright winner of which represents Junior Achievement Portugal in a European competition. “This European competition, Gen-e, is sponsored by the European Union, and enjoys the participation of 40 teams from 40 countries in Europe”, he points out.
Nimay Çelikyay, a social innovation expert on the Galp Open Innovation Team, is the mentor of the team entrusted with unveiling the Portuguese project in Turkey
The Galp Foundation, a partner of JAP in Portugal in the form of a social investor, plays a dynamic role in this initiative by mentoring the teams of students participating in the programme, drawing on the knowledge and experience of the Galp Innovation team and other teams at the organisation. Through the Galp volunteer programme, it has specialists from a wide range of areas and supports the development of projects such as WillChair. Specialising in innovation and a member of the Galp Open Innovation Team for two years, Nimay Çelikyay is the mentor of this team of four young people, and will be accompanying them on their trip to Turkey. However, as she explains, more than undertaking a specific role, “my goal is to be part of the team, to be one of them, to help in whatever way I can to enable them to get the most out of the experience”.
After the competition, and regardless of the result, Nimay will meet up with the team again to ascertain what they have learned from the event and what they have gained from the experience. “This kind of learning process can change their lives for the future”, she underlines.