Beaconly
Activity Guides

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: The Main Options

A reference of the main innovation and entrepreneurship options for a child aged 9 to 12 in Singapore: school, national programmes, or private camps.

Prepared by The Editorial Team

Updated 29 September 2026

Details checked September 2026. Programmes change, so confirm with the school or provider.

Mostly curriculum, not a choosable activity

Similar to Humanities, innovation and entrepreneurship learning in Singapore primary schools is largely delivered through each school’s Applied Learning Programme (ALP). The ALP is a curriculum feature, not a CCA a child joins or a class a parent enrols in. Schools whose ALP centres on innovation run project work, design-thinking challenges and showcase events across some or all primary levels. Every student in the relevant level takes part as standard schooling, not by individual choice. Not every school’s ALP is about innovation: some focus on drama or other areas instead, and some of those still run innovation project work outside their ALP. Some schools also pick smaller groups of pupils for extra innovation work, through a CCA or a selective programme.

What’s available beyond the curriculum

National Thinkers Challenge. A national innovation challenge for primary school teams, organised by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan and running since 2019. Teams use design thinking, user interviews and data to tackle a real-world theme and build prototypes. Schools select and enter the teams, so a child takes part through their school, at one school through its ICT club, rather than signing up directly.

Entrepreneurship camps and children’s markets. Some private providers run entrepreneurship holiday camps for children, such as a week-long camp for ages 8 to 14. There are also children’s markets where young sellers make a product and run their own stall; one held in July 2026 had a category for ages 9 to 14.

Not covered here

This page doesn’t cover programmes that schools sign up for on their pupils’ behalf, such as design challenges or entrepreneurship courses run by outside organisations, or selective programmes schools nominate pupils for. It also doesn’t cover other invention and innovation competitions, or entrepreneurship and innovation clubs at international schools. Coding, robotics and other technology competitions are in the STEM guide.

This page doesn’t say whether any activity is offered as a Direct School Admission talent area. Each secondary school sets its own talent areas for each year’s exercise, so check the school’s own DSA page and MOE’s DSA-Sec information.

Sources