Eight students from four schools showcased their ideas for solutions to issues they are passionate about during the Upstart Challenge event on Thursday night.

Loreto College Year 10 student Beth Wright was selected as the winner of the 2020 Upstart Challenge and awarded a $1000 prize for her solution to reduce the environmental impact of the beauty industry.

She pitched an idea to create an app which would allow consumers to scan the barcodes of beauty products and be provided information about the environmental impact of specific products.

"I believe it is vital to educate consumers to make ethical decisions," Beth said during her pitch.

"The app will educate on the environmental impact and impact on your body of each product."

Bacchus Marsh Grammar Year 9 students Zoe Daniel, Carmen Miguelez Gallardo and Josh Dimeri won the people's choice award for their idea to provide electricity to African villages for education.

They pitched a portable power pack that generates electricity from being in the current of water, as their research revealed many poor African villages were located on rivers.

Carmen said the product had a commercial and humanitarian aspect, as they would target its sale at fishermen and campers and donate one pack for every sale to an African community.

Ballarat Grammar Grade 6 pupils Eleanor Justin and Olivia Beechey shared their idea for a rescue watch for people to wear when swimming at the beach to reduce the number of drowning deaths.

They said swimmers could press a button on the watch when they were in trouble and the lifeguard team could pinpoint their exact location on a screen through the GPS function.

Mount Rowan Secondary College Year 10 students Mia Flynn, Zari Collins and Grace Robertson pitched their idea to use school facilities to run community sports for children to tackle the issue of obesity.

Mia said they developed the idea after receiving feedback that it was difficult for parents to travel to and pay for their child's sporting activities.

The judges and audience commended their idea for its potential to activate the local community and for a simple proposal that could be actioned quickly.

Almost 70 participants joined the online pitch event designed to celebrate the young entrepreneurs and the pipeline of talent in Ballarat.

The students participated in the Upstart Challenge since term three, learning entrepreneurial skills through online modules during home learning periods, identifying their chosen problem and developing a solution.

The teams met at the Flecknoe Building in Ballarat on Friday last week to work with mentors to further refine and develop their ideas and prepare for the pitch event.

Pitch event host Jason Clarke, who is founder of innovation consultancy Minds At Work, said being creative, inventive and adaptive had been more important this year than ever.

"You cope with hard times by being creative, inventive and adaptive," he said.

"This challenge is about finding the spark in our kids, the kind of thinking that reinvents the future, and celebrating that.

"Look at the potential we have within our community. Imagine what they can do next year and beyond.

"I always feel like Upstart is a sneak peak to the future every time I watch a pitch."

Upstart co-founder Heather Kelly said the program was a way of giving a voice to young people and showing them what they said was listened to by adults.

Ballarat Grammar student Olivia said it was encouraging to know people wanted to hear about their idea.