07:16, 11/21/2023

In recent years, schools in the province have paid attention to the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in schools with practical activities. Since then, many startups with promising startup projects have been discovered, nurtured and achieved initial success.

Start a business from handmade wool products

Realizing that handmade products are a favorite trend among young people and gradually spreading to all ages, since July 2023, a group of 5 young people with the same passion for knitting: Nguyen Tran Khoi Nguyen, Luc Nguyen Uyen Chi, Le Thi Thuy Nga, Vo Thu Thao and Pham Ngoc Han (all 11th grade students, Cao Nguyen Practice High School) had the idea of ​​selling handmade wool products.

Nguyen Tran Khoi Nguyen (left) introduces the group's handmade wool products to customers.

To realize the idea, the members of the group pooled money to buy raw wool to make products and develop an online sales channel. The products that the group makes are often cute and lovely items such as keychains, hair accessories (headbands, ties), handbags, hats, shirts, table flowers... with prices ranging from 40,000 - 180,000 VND/product (depending on size). To attract customers, the members of the group have "transformed" the products to become more unique and new through diversifying the designs, patterns, color combinations, different types of wool... Along with that, the startup group has posted and shared images and information about the products on their personal Facebook pages and groups of handmade enthusiasts. At the same time, they have created a fanpage called "Sac handmade" to introduce and advise customers on choosing and ordering suitable and satisfactory items. In addition to ready-made products, the group also accepts to make products according to customers' ideas and requests, along with gift wrapping services; providing tools, materials and instructional videos so that customers can make a handmade crochet product by themselves.

The products made by the group all have different designs, are not duplicated and are changed to suit each holiday, event as well as the personality of each customer. Normally, the time to make a handmade wool product is at least 2 hours, at most 2 - 5 days. Initially, the group mainly sold to relatives, friends and students in the province. Up to now, many customers from other provinces such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City ... know and order the products. Currently, on average, the group sells 20 - 30 products per month. The group uses a part of the money earned from selling products as revolving capital, the rest to cover studying expenses.

Nguyen Tran Khoi Nguyen, a member of the group, said that with good quality, eye-catching designs and reasonable prices, the group's products have received positive reviews and feedback from customers. In the near future, the group will aim to distribute products to accessory and clothing stores in Buon Ma Thuot City. Along with that, they will research and create many other crochet products that suit consumer tastes to expand their customer base.

Recently, at the 2023 Startup and Innovation Ideas Competition organized by Tay Nguyen University, the group's project "Colorful handmade wool shop - New hope" won second prize.

passion fruit processing automation

With the desire to automate the process of separating passion fruit pulp to replace the manual method currently used in most households and passion fruit processing facilities in the locality, in 2022, the research team of Dong Du Secondary and High School, including students: Vi Thi Thu Ha (class 12A1), Le Tran Dang Khoa (class 10A1), Le Tran Nhat Khoa (class 10A1), Pham Ngoc Thien Thu (class 10A5), Tran Vo Thien An (class 10A3) worked together to build the project "Design and manufacture a passion fruit pulp extraction machine to automate the production process and increase labor productivity".

A group of students from Dong Du Secondary and High School introduced a passion fruit pulp extractor at the 2023 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Festival.

Sharing about the idea of ​​implementing this project, Pham Ngoc Thien Thu, a member of the group, said: “When visiting the farms and passion fruit processing facilities, we realized that the implementation process was still very manual. Moreover, the number of passion fruit trees in the province is quite large, but 100% are still processed by manual methods, so it takes a lot of time. Not to mention that this method also has low productivity, costs a lot of labor costs, and does not ensure food hygiene and safety. Understanding the difficulties of farmers and passion fruit processing facilities, our group has researched and created a passion fruit pulp suction machine together."

Initially, under the guidance of teachers at school, the students learned about the process of making automatic machines from previous science and technology topics. After having a solid foundation of knowledge, they started making machines. Initially, the machine had many unsatisfactory points, the passion fruit seeds could not be completely separated from the shell. However, the group persevered and made efforts to overcome and gradually perfect it.

Thanks to the determination, the passion fruit pulp extractor has been completed with full features. After being put into the machine, the passion fruit pulp is completely separated from the peel. The product not only helps improve labor productivity but also aims to transform the production and processing of passion fruit from manual, rudimentary labor to industrial production with advanced, modern methods. At the same time, it contributes to automating the agricultural processing process in the locality, increasing the value of passion fruit trees, thereby improving the economic life of farmers.

Thanks to those practical meanings, the project "Design and manufacture of passion fruit pulp suction machine to automate the production process and increase labor productivity" of the group of students from Dong Du Secondary and High School has won many awards, including Second Prize, in the field of industry, product manufacturing at the 5th National Student Startup Idea Contest; First Prize in the National Science and Technology Competition for high school students in the 2021-2022 school year; The 8th Vu A Dinh Award in 2022; First Prize in the Provincial Science and Technology Competition for high school students in the 2021-2022 school year. This is also a source of motivation for the group members to try harder. From there, they will have good ways to put the project's products into widespread application in real life.

Kha Le - Tuyet Mai