The Foundry is a credible, structured entrepreneurship program your existing staff can deliver, with industry mentors who show up when they're needed. This page lays out the full picture: where it fits in your timetable, what it costs you in staff time, how it compares to standard delivery, the SACE mapping, and how a school gets started.
The Foundry is curriculum, not a one-off enrichment day. It runs in three configurations, and we work with you on the call to pick the one that matches your school's structure and ambition. The ten modules and the deliverables are the same in each. What changes is the depth and the calendar.
The question every head of department asks first, answered straight. Your existing staff teach it, with a facilitator guide, slides, exercises, a student workbook and a rubric for every module. The mentors come from your own community, and we help you bring them in and schedule them. The genuine additional load over a standard subject is that outreach and the demo-day logistics, both of which we support you through.
| Task | Who | Time | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teach the module in class | Subject teacher | Standard class delivery | Weekly |
| Review student submissions on the platform | Subject teacher | 15–20 min | Weekly |
| Brief the drop-in mentor before their session | Subject teacher | 10 min | Per module |
| Demo-day logistics + panel | Subject teacher | 2–3 hrs total | Final two modules |
Roughly 1–2 hours a week on top of teaching a subject your staff already teach, plus demo-day preparation at the end. We carry the curriculum, the mentor network, and the platform. You carry the classroom.
Most entrepreneurship and business teaching covers the right ground on paper. The gap opens in the delivery: students learn to describe a venture without ever building one. The Foundry closes that gap.
| Outcome | Standard delivery | The Foundry |
|---|---|---|
| Real customer interviews | Optional or simulated | Required: real people |
| A working prototype | Described or sketched | Built and tested |
| A financial model | Taught conceptually | Built for their own venture |
| Industry input | Teacher-led throughout | A specialist mentor per module |
| A live pitch to an external panel | Rare or optional | Mandatory, real judges |
| What the student leaves with | A grade and a vocabulary | A built venture and a network |
When the audience is real, the work becomes real. A pitch delivered to working founders, recorded, in front of a room, is prepared for differently than an essay marked by a teacher. Consequence is the single strongest driver of genuine skill, and it's the thing a classroom alone struggles to manufacture.
The Foundry is built to be curriculum-flexible. Run it as a standalone elective, a term inside another subject, or extracurricular, in whichever year level suits your school.
If you want it to carry SACE Stage 1 Business Innovation credit, it does. The ten module deliverables compile into a Business Investigation Portfolio, and the demo-day pitch maps to a Business Presentation assessment task. It covers all four Stage 1 topics, and Business Innovation is 100% school-assessed, so your coordinator keeps full discretion over delivery.
Not routing through SACE BI? It works just as well as a Year 10 elective, a one-term commerce unit, or an extracurricular program. The credit is an option, not the point.
| SACE Stage 1 BI topic | Covered in |
|---|---|
| Finding & Solving Problems | Modules 1–5 |
| Financial Awareness & Decision-Making | Modules 6–7 |
| Business Information & Communication | Modules 8–10 |
| Global, Local & Digital Connections | Woven throughout |
The Foundry runs inside schools with school students, and safeguarding is built into every part of it. Mentors are screened to the standard your school requires, including Working with Children Checks. All in-school mentor sessions run with a staff member present. Your school's own policies always take precedence.
The Foundry is building toward The Founder's Cup, an inter-school startup championship for South Australia. As more schools join, the aim is for students to compete for the cup the way they compete in rowing or debating, in front of a panel of investors and founders. Founding schools shape it.
Where it's heading →Everything above is yours to share with a head of department, a principal, or a curriculum committee. When you want the facilitator guides, a sample module, and a proposal scoped to your school, get in touch or email hello@safoundry.com.au. No deck required.