Young Enterprise Scotland

Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) is a registered education charity that has been working to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise since 1992..

YES is a licensee of Young Enterprise (YE) and the YES history is proudly linked with JA Worldwide, with YES achieving independent Scottish Charity status in 1992

History

Sir Walter Salomon founded Young Enterprise in the 1962/1963 academic year, based on the American Junior Achievement programme. By the 1973/1974 academic year, there were twenty-two area boards across the UK running Young Enterprise programmes.

Decentralisation

During the 1990s, Young Enterprise became less centralised. On August 26, 1991, Young Enterprise Scotland became an independent charity operating under licence from the main UK organisation.

Scotland now runs with 17 Local Area Teams supported by hundreds of volunteers throughout the country.

Festival of Youth Enterprise

YES is now a successful charity in its own right and frequently works with partners to create opportunities for others.

This was reflected in 2017’s Festival of Youth Enterprise where YES curated a two-day educational event for young people across the country at Hampden Park. Day One focuses on S1 – S3 and brings them together with more than 20 potential employers or training providers to help them learn more about enterprise. The young people have the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers and take part in workshops.

Day Two ties in with the final of the Company Programme where 17 teams of students come from all over Scotland to compete with a meal and awards ceremony at the end. The 2018 event was the flagship Year of Young People event and was supported by the Scottish Government.

Speakers and hosts at the event have included Rachel McTavish, SKapade Studios, Sanjeev Kohli, and David Duke.

Rouken Glen Centre

Young Enterprise Scotland took over a semi-derelict site within Rouken Glen Park in 2014 and have worked to convert the buildings into a habitable space for staff, and to offer space to tenants who share the same values as the charity.

The site currently hosts;

•Locavore

•Pedalwise

•Big Green Feet

School Programmes

Young Enterprise Scotland currently runs a number of programmes for different age groups.

Company Programme

In the 2017/2018 academic year, 1,996 students ran 206 companies.

Aimed at ages S5 and S6 and run during the course of an academic year, this is the core programme run by Young Enterprise Scotland. Students form a business and elect a board of directors, then create, sell, and market products, attempting to generate profits.

The overall Company of the Year 2018, Estrela – from Orkney – made sales of £16,000

Team Programme

This programme, aimed at ages 15–19+, can take place over 1 or 2 academic years.

Students who have experienced difficulties with their learning form a company and work together, meeting every week. Each company is supported by a Business Adviser who works with the students to mentor and advise them.

The Inventors Challenge

Aimed at P4-P7, this programme is delivered by Programme Executives in a one-day delivery within the school. It encourages young people to look at some of the most important inventions that have come from Scotland and to consider how they could ‘futureproof’ them.

The Fiver Challenge

This programme is run from P1–P7 and offers a taster of enterprise over four weeks. The students take part in a different competition each week that can be anything from trade stands to logo design.

High Street Challenge

Aimed at S3 - S5, this programme uses a full day session to work with young people and discuss the elements involved in creating their own High Street brand. It is designed to show students the link between their education and their future success.

Tenner Challenge

The Tenner Challenge is a continuation of the Fiver Challenge into secondary school where the students are pledges £10 each to grow it over four weeks. There are weekly competitions on various topics to encourage competition across the UK.

Circular Economy Challenge

YES are strong supporters of the Circular Economy concept and have developed a programme to educate young people on the benefits of adopting a circular attitude to the products they use on a daily basis. Created in conjunction with Circular Glasgow and Scottish Power Foundation, the aim is to get 1,000 primary pupils on-site during 2018/19.

Pathways Programmes

Alongside the school programmes, YES also runs a series of Pathways Programmes aimed to target young people who may be or have been disillusioned with standard education and are in danger of becoming disengaged.

The programmes are designed to;

•improve young peoples confidence and motivation

•improve their employability skills

•gain them additional credits through SQA

•Offers them an opportunity to get out of their comfort zone

To date, 50% of the young people taking part in a Pathways Programme have gained a college place as a direct result of the Pathways project.

With over 20 schools having taken part since the programme founding in 2015, the offering has grown to include:

Junior Pathways

The Pathways Programmes currently target schools within Greater Glasgow area due to the bulk of the learning taking part within the YES HQ.

Yes Works

YES founded their own social enterprise in 2016 to support the work provided by YES. An Award recognised Social enterprise, they deliver premium quality Landscape Gardening services to local authorities, housing associations, businesses as well as private homes in the West of Scotland.

The services not only deliver a high quality end-product, they also help develop young people through their Social Business model

Bridge 2 Business

A further education programme available in most colleges across Scotland. It is an interactive and engaging programme to inspire, connect and support college students into business.

The Bridge 2 Business programme offers college students the opportunity to engage with entrepreneurial role models who are relevant to college students with an interest in setting up their own business or looking to take enterprise skills to their workplace. The programme will help connect college students with the great networks that exist in Scotland.

In addition to inspiring and connecting college students, B2B also offer college students the chance to apply for a small grant to help test out their business ideas and match with a mentor from the local business community who will be able to assist as they progress with their business plans.

References

This article "Young Enterprise Scotland" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Young Enterprise Scotland. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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