Business is most striking when it is brought about by someone young. The youth are the most innovative thinkers when it comes to keeping up with the fast-paced business world, and skills that are taught young often shine through in later years.
The Young Enterprise Scheme is an extracurricular programme that aims to target these skills and enhance them. High schoolers from years 11-13, are able to think of a product themselves, and experience the rewarding feeling of success after putting hours of effort into the planning, creation, and production of something. Young Enterprise allows business tendencies to be expressed through inventive, new ideas, and pushes students to thrive in a real business environment. The programme helps to shape kids with ideas into young entrepreneurs.
The Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) promotes business knowledge for beginners by teaching students about modern day business, the strategies of planning and operating, developing personal and business skills, and allows students to begin making connections and networking throughout their local community in order to kick-start their business.
Some of the real-life business opportunities that are included in the course are: running formal business meetings and presentations, learning from a business mentor (much like a boss), improving ideas to fit a target audience, learning about the importance of sustainability in a product, conducting research, and securing a channel for sales.
David Smith is someone who took advantage of the excellent opportunities that the Young Enterprise Scheme provided while he was in high school here on the Shore, at Northcote College. He looks back on the beginning of it all.
“The way I got into Young Enterprise was by hearing about it at one of the school assemblies at the beginning of year 11. My friend Jacques and I instantly looked at each other with a smirk, as we both knew it was something we’d be willing to try!”.
A team of teachers and mentors at Northcote College worked with David and his friend Jacques, and through the Young Enterprise Scheme they were able to design and produce a product, and then distribute it around New Zealand and even sold some internationally, whilst earning profit along the way. The product was called the PoKey, and it was an alternative to bulky key ring, aiming to reduce space and store up to 12 keys in a compact holder.
The PoKey was an absolute success, with close to 400 of the key holders sold over the course of the project. David and Jacques were able to build a network of people to help them with their business, buying supplies from places all over the shore to create their PoKey’s with, along with using the laser cutter at school to achieve their design. They were able to get in contact with the CEO of the PledgeMe website, and formed a connection with them. This meant that there was a great opportunity for advertising and getting their faces out into the community to ask for help with funding the PoKey project.
The success that the boys had in year 11 with the help of the Young Enterprise Scheme, meant that they were exceptionally deserving of the Excellence Award in Business Operations and Management. The pair were presented with this award whilst in Wellington for the national YES event, as one of only 20 teams out of 400 invited to attend.
David’s competence from the Young Enterprise Scheme stuck with him as he started his first part time job at Sal's as a delivery driver. He says: “My boss and I worked closely when I was starting and he could see how business orientated I was, and how driven I became with work. He saw huge potential and drive in me.”
David’s love for business shone through and led him to climb higher in the Sal’s company. After just seven months, he was offered a full-time position as a store manager for the company. He is now investing most of his time into the way the company works and the processes behind the business, which hopes to broaden its stores into Australia over the next year. And David intends to be a big part of this expansion.
The expertise and basic business structure that the Young Enterprise Scheme taught David are the reason he is so focused and passionate about the ins and outs of business. His ability to now run a functioning business and understand the aspects that make a company successful, are all owing to the interest he expressed in year 11, and the way that the YES programme developed his strengths in the industry.
David shares some advice to young teens who may be thinking about getting into something similar. “If you’re thinking about business, just do it. You won’t know if you don’t try. And if you are still young, it is the perfect time to try it out. You don't know what your potential will be and where it'll take you. Business is a very good thing to get into, especially while our economies are rapidly growing.”
