The Youth Enterprise Society

The YES Story The Youth Enterprise Society (YES) Programme is designed to meet a very real national need. With fewer than 10% of South African school leavers able to find employment, something significant had to be done to help enable our youth to lead more productive and meaningful lives. Designed and developed after three years of intensive research and consultation by The Education With Enterprise Trust (EWET), the YES Programme's mission is:

TO EMPOWER YOUNG PEOPLE, THROUGH ENTERPRISE, TO BECOME MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES. Or put another way, to help more and more
young people to become business creators rather than simply job seekers. A uniquely South African self-empowerment plan. Honed by a three year pilot programme conducted in the north-eastern Free State, YES is an extramural multiracial school based "learning by doing" programme for grade 9 (std 7), grade 10 (std 8) and grade 11 (std 9) pupils. The programme involves whole communities, including local business people, trade union representatives, educationalists and other community members and is designed to create awareness and interest in free-market entrepreneurship as a career option amongst young people. After meeting certain requirements, interested parties within a community form a "Local Partnership" (LP) which then initiates YES Societies at one or more schools in their area. Under the guidance of specially trained teachers, students learn, practice and develop a variety of business skills during their twice weekly meetings. Learning the importance and means of creating capital ownership and wealth within their community. The medium to longer term aim being to establish a future entrepreneurial stratum, especially in regions of low income populations, which can then help create jobs, build community resources and thus help contribute to the overall national economy. YES Society structure Students are invited by their peers to join and each YES Society involves three to six specially trained teachers who act as YES Advisors and 45 students, broken down into three teams: 15 x grade 9 (standard 7), entitled "Pioneers" 15 x grade 10 (standard 8), entitled "Champions" 15 x grade 11 (standard 9), entitled "YES Entrepreneurs" Matric students are not involved, leaving them free to focus totally on their final year at school. Those who participated in the programme and "graduated" are known as "YES alumni". Numbers permitting, there can be more than one YES Society per school, which does introduce a healthy competitive climate. Society leadership is with the youth who elect their own office bearers and run their own affairs. Teachers act purely as facilitators and a link to the Local Partnership (LP), who's members judge and evaluate the students progress.

YES Societies in action Once established, a YES Society commences by electing their office bearers. Firstly for the Society as a whole and then again within each of the three grade 9, 10 and 11 (standard 7,8 and 9) teams. Campaigning by the students is usually their first exposure to mass motivation and is in itself a good learning experience, resulting in an executive committee comprising: President Vice - President Secretary Treasurer Public relations Officer Constitutional Adviser Team Chairpersons The Society and Teams can also appoint their own Temporary Committees to handle delegated projects and all office bearers and committee members receive instructions on their specific duties and responsibililties. The whole Society meets once a week to review, discuss, initiate and delegate "Society projects". These sessions are chaired by the Society President, with the Society Secretary taking the minutes and other committee members reporting when called upon to do so. This is akin to divisions meeting within a large corporation. Teams separate for their other weekly meeting, each chaired and run by their own committees. These are the workshop sessions where teams focus on their specific "Team projects" and receive guidance and skills training in a variety of essential business competencies. YES Members are tested in 17 Business Competencies Throughout the three year programme YES Members focus on developing skills in the following 17 entrepreneurial competencies, with the content of each becoming broader and more complex with each passing year: (1) Life Skills (2) Understanding The Market Economy (3) Business Ideas (4) Evaluating The Community (5) Setting Goals (6) Market Research (7) Plan The Business (8) Plan Business Finance (9) Plan Human Resources (10) Business Promotion (11) Selling The Product (12) Business Accounts (13) Business Records (14) Leading and Managing (15) Business Communications (16) Entrepreneurship as a Career (17) Our Business (Team Project) Encouraged by team spirit, peer pressure and the guidance of their specially trained advisors, YES Members select and participate in "hands-on" team projects designed to help develop skills in each of the above competencies. Throughout the year teams are required to make presentations to panels from their LP, usually comprised of local business people and the relevant YES Advisor. Those individual team members whom a panel deems to have satisfied the laid down criteria then receive the

"Credit Sticker" for their level of that particular competency to attach to their competency certificate. Yes Members compete for national recognition If competition in business is healthy then amongst those interested in learning the skills of entrepreneurship it is vital. Fostering this spirit of adventure is the 3 day Annual National Competitive YES Conference. Designed to regard those YES participants who have excelled during the course of that year, it affords them the opportunity to compete against each other nationally. Putting the best against the best. The qualifying route is not easy. For a student to make it to the conference they must not only excel in their own Society, but also within their full LP area, their Region and finally gain selection to represent their Province. At the conference, YES Members compete in 10 individual events and 4 team events, for Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. In addition to that the following national awards are also made: YES Member of the Year YES Advisor of the Year YES Team of the Year YES Society of the Year LP of the Year Graduating to bigger things While the overall objective of the YES Programme is to help alleviate unemployment by encouraging young people to consider entrepreneurship as a career option, to expect all who participate to start their own businesses would be unrealistic. For this reason The Education With Enterprise Trust (EWET) envisages that YES Graduates will successfully go one of three ways - viz.:

Start own business (target 21%) Further their education Secure formal sector employment EMPOWERING PEOPLE THROUGH ENTERPRISE TO BECOME MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES. The Education With Enterprise Trust A Section 18A Trust (Tax Exeption) Ref. 18/9/2/11/1064 Fund Raising No. 077002850009 Reg. No. 5961/92 49C Stuart Street, PO Box 150, Harrismith, 9880, South Africa Telephone: (058) 6230104 / 6230649 Fax: (058) 6230107 E-Mail: ewet@ewet.org.za