The 9th annual financial literacy programme for student is launched. — VNS Photo

The Vietnam Students’ Association and payment company Visa have launched the ninth annual financial literacy programme with the support of VinaCapital for young people across the country.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa’s country manager for Viet Nam and Laos, said: “This year’s programme aims to build on the success of previous years as we work to provide lifelong financial skills to the people of Viet Nam. We continue to be encouraged by the diversity and high standard of student submissions and we look forward to seeing how the context of a start-up can be applied to developing strong financial literacy among students and inspire the next generation of business innovators.”

The programme will provide student entrepreneurs with many of the financial management skills required to run a successful start-up.

A space exploration theme will be used to add to the excitement as students take on the role of astronauts on a journey through space on a mission to achieve their start-up pursuits.

The format will see students forming teams of three to develop their ideas and pitch their business plan to a panel of judges with a chance to win prizes worth VND110 million (US$4,800).

A series of challenges will see the business plans orbiting back to Earth, with Visa representing the central ‘space station’ that will provide students with crucial funding for their start-up concepts besides other expert resources in the form of an online start-up survival toolkit.

Among the highly valuable resources offered to participants is a rare opportunity for shortlisted candidates to receive one-to-one mentoring from industry leaders and field experts.

Students from all universities and colleges in the country are invited to form teams and submit their business ideas before October 12.

They will be asked to present their ideas in two stages: a 300-word written pitch followed by a visual representation of the concept in the form of a poster image for voting before October 19 .

Seven ideas will be selected by a panel of judges to advance to the next rounds.

The competition will run six weeks with each round involving funding sponsorship, cash prizes and other rewards such as field trips and exclusive access to business leaders.

The programme will culminate in the competition’s finale on December 18 where the winning team will be awarded VND60 million ($2,600) to fund their start-up idea. — VNS