Looking for a way to bring entrepreneurship to life in your classroom? CFEE’s newest program, the Summer Side Hustle Entrepreneurship Challenge, is now live — and it’s free, flexible, and ready to use.

Designed for middle and high school classrooms, the Summer Side Hustle Challenge invites students to step into the role of a small business owner. Working individually or in teams, students imagine a side hustle they could realistically launch during the summer break. They build a business plan, navigate simulated real-world changes through “breaking news” updates, and pitch their final idea — all using downloadable templates and resources that make it easy for educators to guide the process.

Originally launched at Red River College Polytech with support from the Retired Teachers’ Association of Manitoba, the challenge is now available to educators across Canada through CFEE’s Our Programs hub.

Whether you run it as a full competition or use it as a creative project to support financial literacy, entrepreneurship, or career exploration, the challenge helps students:

• Learn the basics of business planning
• Practice decision-making and adaptability
• Think critically about risk, pricing, demand, and marketing
• Build confidence in their own ideas

No registration is required, and all materials are ready to download — including a teacher overview, editable business plan template, judging rubric, classroom presentation, and even example submissions from past student participants.

Curious to see what a winning entry looks like?

Take a look at the first-place submission from our pilot event:

👉 View Example Submission

To explore the full resource and get started, visit the program page:

👉 https://cfee.org/program/summer-side-hustle-entrepreneurship-challenge/

If you run a version of the challenge in your class or school, we’d love to hear about it! Share your experience and tag CFEE on your preferred social platform — we’re always excited to see how educators bring these tools to life.

For more information or to discuss running a larger competition in your school or region, contact cizatt@cfee.org.