Young Entrepreneurs Scheme for Schools (YES! Schools)

Young Entrepreneurs Scheme for Schools (YES! Schools)

Provides schools with grants of up to $100,000 to support structured entrepreneurial learning activities

YES! Schools was launched on 10th October 2008 with the objective of nurturing and encouraging students to be enterprising and innovative through ‘hands-on’ entrepreneurship learning opportunities. This scheme will provide funding support for schools to put in place a comprehensive structured entrepreneurship learning programme for their students.

Each year, the schools will have the following amounts to tap on to fund their projects :

a. Up to $100,000 per polytechnic;
b. Up to $50,000 per ITE college; and
c. Up to $10,000 per junior college/centralised institute/secondary school.

Eligibility

YES! Schools is available to polytechnics, ITEs, junior colleges, centralised institute and secondary schools. Projects from primary schools may be funded on a selective basis.

Evaluation Criteria

SPRING will evaluate projects submitted by schools based on the following criteria :

* Entrepreneurship and innovative elements
The proposal should highlight the innovative approach of the project in entrepreneurship learning;

* Holistic approach
The proposal should cover a comprehensive programme on the entrepreneurship learning activities to cultivate a mindset for enterprise among the students and/or teachers;

* Hands-on (experiential) learning component
The proposal should demonstrate the feasibility of the project and outline the steps taken to ensure effective learning outcomes for students. Projects should also require students to put to practical use the lessons learnt; and

* Reach of project
The proposal should indicate the number of students who will benefit from the project.

Apply for YES! Schools

Schools interested in applying for YES! Schools can do so from 1 November 2008.

For any enquiries on YES! Schools, please contact us via email : yes_schools@spring.gov.sg.


For more information on government assistance programmes, please contact the EnterpriseOne hotline at Tel : (65) 6898 1800 or email enterpriseone@spring.gov.sg.

'Secrets of Young Entrepreneur' Workshop

Global Entrepreneurship Week “the Week” is a world-wide initiative where more than 74 countries will, together with partner organisations, conduct a range of activities designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs. Global Entrepreneur Week 2008 will take place from 17th November – 23rd November. More information about the Week can be found here.

NUS Enterprise and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) are the Country Hosts for Singapore and Youth Enterprise Academy is proud to be a part of this exciting global initiative as a supporting partner.

In line with the Week’s vision, we will be having a ‘Secrets of Young Entrepreneurs’ (SoYE) Workshop at the Singapore Management University (SMU) on Saturday, 22nd Nov 2008. SoYE is a 1-day workshop that introduces participants to the Entrepreneur Mindset, the secrets to discovering great opportunities in their environment as well as the essentials of successful marketing. The workshop will also be featuring young and successful entrepreneurs from the soon-to-be-released book ‘The 3rd Little Pig’ and they will be sharing their success stories with participants.

This introductory workshop is highly recommended for students, aspiring entrepreneurs and teachers. It's a great way for participants to understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and to get up close and personal with successful young entrepreneurs.

Date & Time: Saturday 22nd November 2008, 10am – 6pm
Venue: Singapore Management University
Cost: $40 per participant (Special rate of $25 for students).

Includes handouts.
Lunch and refreshments will be catered.

To sign up, simply send us the following details to education@yea.sg or call us at 6222 5672 with your

1. Name
   
2. Organisation
   
3. Occupation
   
4. Email
   
5. Contact Number

Click to view the Trainer's and Speakers' Profile.

Hope to see you there!

BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008

The BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008 has been jointly organised by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy to dedicate a half-day event running entrepreneurship related programmes for youths. It was held on Friday,18th July 2008, at the Hwa Chong Institution. Students and teachers from more than 20 primary and tertiary institutes were invited to participate in workshops, board games and exhibitions. These programmes were aimed to engage youths in various activities to inspire them to realize the possibilities of creative ideas and turning them into avenues of wealth creation.




The BlueSky Enterprise Day is part of the BlueSky Festival which is held annually to run initiatives that encourage and foster the spirit of enterprise amongst Singaporeans, namely the youth.




Gracing the event was the Senior Minister of State for Education, RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, acting as Guest of Honour and took a brief tour of the exhibition area.





At the exhibition, various schools also held exhibits side by side along with other business companies supporting the event such as Now Asia, Microsoft and KooBits. Talentpreneur Hub and the Youth Enterprise Academy were on site to present business development and education programmes which are in line with the vision of Spring Singapore’s initiative to integrate youths into the culture of enterprise.







Student booths on the other hand, presented business programmes and activities that have been run by their respective entrepreneurial student clubs and co-curricular activities. There were also those who tried their hand at setting up and running their own shops selling soft toys and bookmarks among others. Most importantly are exhibits which showcased exemplary Singapore start-ups such as Charles and Keith detailing their humble beginnings to the successful businesses they are today.







Also gracing the event were educational albeit fun filled games held by Settlers Lite, also a local start up. Set in tables laid with board games, groups of students were treated to the fine but essential skills of networking and negotiating. Strategic game play was also evident in “Dividends” where players engage themselves in the trade of financial literacy. Central to the purpose of enterprise, these would prove to be invaluable skills in business and lay the foundation of enterprise in seamless and interactive activity.







Workshops were at hand to foster creative ideas and grease the wheels of innovation. In a series of talks, students participated in discussions with speakers, shared ideas and mapped out concepts in business. It presents a wonderful avenue for them to learn and interact with others to inspire potential entrepreneurs by planting the seeds of business acumen.

Mayor's Imagine Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (MISE) 2008

The Mayor's Imagine Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (MISE) 2008 was designed to help acquaint youth with the local social entrepreneurship scene and to challenge them to come up with a feasible business plan to help voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) to set up sustainable social enterprises to aid their causes.




More than 200 students from JCs, Polytechnics, ITEs and Universities from 50 teams submitted their executive summaries for their idea.

20 teams were specially selected to go through the Business Plan Workshop by Youth Enterprise Academy. 10 teams would be shortlisted in this round where they would again compete for their projects to be funded by the Mayor's Imagine Fund (MIF).



On Day 1, students learnt about the local social entrepreneurship climate as well as the various legal forms that a social enterprise. They also learnt about business plan essentials in an intensive module and also learnt the importance of being able to market their plan well.

In between Day 1 & Day 2 of the Business Plan Workshop, students signed up for mentoring sessions led by trainers to help them fine-tune and iron out hiccups in their business plan. Given the strict judging criteria, it was not surprising that a large number of students were feeling stressed (it was written all over their faces!) to come up with a solid, feasible and credible business plan to show the judges during Day 2 of the programme.

On Day 2, concurrent sessions of Smart Money board game programmes was run while the judging was going on.



While the students may look relaxed in the above picture, I could tell that their mind was on the judging that was going on in the other room. If it was me, I'll be nervous too!

The MISE Challenge 2008 is a great platform to help students to learn about VWOs and to help think of business ideas to help VWOs create self-running, sustainable social enterprises (thus adding an added avenue of much-needed funds to advance their causes and help their beneficiaries). I felt greatly encouraged by the compassion of the youths to raise up to the challenge and test their mettle (and business ideas!).

To the teams who didn't make it, keep that passion burning! Social entrepreneurship do not begin nor end with MISE 2008. You decide whether or not to make a difference and when to call it quits!

And to the finalist teams, all the best!

For the latest updates on the MISE 2008, watch this space!

Join Us at BlueSky Enterprise Day 2008!

Register for the workshops now by sending your details to events@talentpreneurhub.com !

Hope to see you there! :)

National Schools Entrepreneur Summit 2007 Revisited

The National Schools Entrepreneur Summit (NSES) 2007, organised by Youth Enterprise Academy, SMU Ventures and Talentpreneur Hub, is an annual platform for primary to tertiary institutes to come together to share and showcase their various entrepreneurial initiatives and achievements. It was held on Sat, October 27th 2007 at Singapore Management University and attracted more than 250 representatives from 45 schools.

Students and teachers from 19 schools and institutes were invited to take part in the Young Entrepreneur Showcase and was a great way for participants to be updated with the latest in the school I&E scene. Student participants received the opportunity to learn and interact with their peers from other schools as well as with young entrepreneurs who have started their business.

Summit participants also got to engage a panel of educators and entrepreneurs on relevant issues in the youth entrepreneurship scene. Individuals on the Panel included Mr Tony Seow, Guest of Honor and Founder & Managing Director of Purple Sage; Professor Desai, Associate Dean of Information Systems; Mr Suresh Shankar, CEO of RedPill Solution; Mr Ken Koh, Founder & Business Development Director, Youth Enterprise Academy.

Here are some snapshots from the event:

Business Planning : Avoiding Archilles' Heel

I've mentioned this before, but those who are familiar with Jurong Junior College would know that the school strongly supports the entrepreurial endeavours of its students.


This can be seen by the 4 student-operated businesses in the school, jointly run by the Enterprise Club.


The E³ Programme that Youth Enterprise Academy conducted for the students was to help them bolster their business planning skills to help them to grow these 4 enterprises, as well as to enable them to perform better for business plan competitions.


The students were quick learners, no doubt accelerated by their experiences in business operations. The marketing strategies and campaigns that they were able to come up with were great.


The Archilles' heel of any business plan is often the finance portion of the business plan. Students often make the mistakes of overprojecting initial sales, or tweaking the figures just so that the business would break-even in a year.


Investors and VCs however, can sniff out any financial loopholes faster than you can say 'oops.' And I was glad that none of the students committed those fundamental flaws.


Here's a quick look of what transpired over the 2-day workshop.

BU2: The Seven Flowers

Planning can be fun too!

A quick look at successful marketing campaigns by companies

And the final presentation after 2 days of hard work!

The Importance of Business Planning

Youth Enterprise Academy was invited by the JJ Enterprise Club of Jurong Junior College to give an assembly talk to share on youth entrepreneurship and business planning.
We subsequently invited Nicky Teo from Funeral Solutions and Ken Koh from Talentpreneur Hub to share their experiences with the youth.
Nicky Teo is one of those young people who creates ripples everywhere they go.
Given the industry that he is in, it's hardly surprising that most people will do a double take when they hear that a young chap is a funeral director.

When Nicky was invited to speak at an entrepreneurial assembly talk recently at Jurong Junior College on the importance of the business planning, he openly admitted that he didn't do any planning before venturing on his business. Prior to setting up his company, Funeral Solutions Pte Ltd, Nicky had years of experience by being actively involved in the funeral processes and rites at a local temple.
He decided to start out on his own and his company was born. He believed that it was important to be responsible to the client and not overcharge them. He felt that transparency was the best way to go when dealing with his clients and it because his unique selling point the industry.
He shared with the 800-strong audience that it was only after he became his own boss did he realised the importance of business planning to help shape the direction of his company. He found out that many of the mistakes that he committed could have been avoided had he taken the time to do proper business planning.
That message was firmly echoed by my good friend and colleague, Ken Koh, Managing Director of Talentpreneur Hub and Youth Enterprise Academy. Ken gave tips to the students on what to look out for before starting a business, citing examples from YEA itself.

Ken also shared on several local successful entrepreneurs who are below 25 and how they were able to succeed in their industry despite stiff competition.
The students at JJC enjoyed themselves with Nicky's and Ken's humorous sharing and Youth Enterprise Academy sincerely hoped that more students will be encouraged to venture out and start on their entrepreneurial endeavours, starting with the strong initiative and support from their college.

National Youth Entrepreneurship Conference 2007

The first NYEC is organised by the Exoro Team (find out more about them here) to reach out to students from all tertiary institutes and also, to challenge them to prove their mettle at the National ExoroGame™ Youth Challenge.

Here, teams of 3 (each taking up the role of a CEO, CTO and CMO for Chief Executive, Technology and Marketing Officer respectively) from each school put on their business hats and go mano-a-mano against the other teams in the business simulation board game ExoroGame™. They must purchase, market, develop (and even patent) and price their products while keeping an eye out on their competitors and avoid falling too deeply into debts at the same time.

The process above sure sounds similar to the actual process of running a real business.

Talentpreneur Hub was invited to be a Supporting Organisation for the NYEC 2007 and it was really good to see some familiar faces from the schools that we have worked with turn up at the Challenge.

Colin from Settler's Cafe was also there and there was a lot of interest from teachers and students in the Settler's Lite programme. To find out more about it, visit the Settler's Lite website.

I thought that the most interesting highlight of the conference was Mr Ron Sim's sharing of his experience as an entrepreneur. Given that he has been on the enterprise path for the last 20 years, his stories really left me a lot to think about.

But more stories about it next time! Youth Enterprise Academy, together with Talentpreneur Hub, will be launching the biggest school entrepreneur event of the year! And you saw it here first!

So be sure to mark out the 27th October 2007 down on your calendar because everyone is invited to the National Schools Entrepreneur Summit 2007!

Stay tune for more information in the coming weeks :)

'Go Global' Business Case Seminar

The "Go Global" Business Case Competition saw the gathering of students from completely different cultural and educational backgrounds to tackle a business case study. Participants from tertiary institutions and international schools went through team-bonding and problem-based learning to synergise their strengths and efforts in solving an unconventional business case study.
One of highlights of the competition was a seminar with a panel discussion organized by Talentpreneur Hub held before the final presentation of the competition. The topic of the seminar was Youth Entrepreneurship and Opportunities Abroad. Successful local entrepreneurs Ms Elim Chew of 77th Street, Mr Douglas Foo of Sakae Sushi, Mr Colin Lim of Settlers’ Café and eBay PowerSeller, Mark Young gave the audience valuable insights on handling setback and venturing overseas. Young entrepreneurs of Talentpreneur Hub, Nicky Teo of Funeral Solutions, Serene Yeo and Goh Cheng Ze of Dotbox also shared about their start-up journey. An interactive session of Q&A following their sharing had many members of the audience motivated to further explore their own business ideas. Many of them commented that it was inspiring meeting the young entrepreneurs in person and learning about their start-up journey.In the following months, YEA will feature more events that serve as platforms for young people to cultivate their interest and knowledge in entrepreneurship in the months to come. Meanwhile, keep a lookout for details of the National Schools Entrepreneur Summit coming up in December 2007. This event will bring together student entrepreneurs from all over Singapore and offer a smörgåsbord of activities and talks to bring spotlight to the school entrepreneur scene!

Asia Pacific Speakers Summit

The Asia Pacific Speakers Summit 2007 held on 17 and 18 May brought together some of the best speakers and trainers from more than ten nations including UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand. Participants at the event not only witness dynamic speaks and trainers in action, but they also gained fresh insight into the business of training, learning and retention.


Some of our student members at YEA had a chance to meet and interact with some of the best presenters and trainers in professional public speaking.
These students who have undergone training at YEA got a chance to sharpen their knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship under an exclusive continuity programme to cultivate their entrepreneurial skills on the various platforms offered at YEA. The students helped out at the reception and assisted the speakers in their presentations. Many of them realized the value of networking when they put to practice what they learnt about building lasting contacts in business.

The Importance of Networking

During 1 of the 4 E³ sessions for National Junior College's I&E Club, Dean was going over the fundamentals of networking.

He asked the students how much they knew about networking, and they all thought that they knew quite a bit about the subject. I mean, c'mon, isn't it as simple as meeting new people and making friends? They reasoned.

We decided to put them to the test and did a mock of an actual networking session. It turns out that there was quite a bit about networking that they don't understand. That getting to know someone professionally isn't quite the same ball game as socialising and making friends.

We told them that there were a lot of things they were doing that could be improved on, like how proper handshakes, or how to walk, talk and speak properly. What kind of topic to talk about when meeting someone new.

And then we ran the session again. And this time, both Dean and I were dumbfounded at how much they have improved. In a matter of an hour, the students have stopped being students and were networking, exchanging contacts, getting what they want out of the networking sessions as if they've done it their entire lives.

After the workshop, Dean and I had this conversation.

'Well done, Dean. They improved alot.'

'Yeah, I didn't expect them to be this good after a quick session.'

'These kids are different, it's not like you don't know it already. They absorb what you teach and fling it back at you with equal finesse and they make it look easy while they're doing that.'

Isn't it remarkable?

It takes a different kind...

of student to be able to apply what they have learnt from your workshop and put those ideas into great use.

The youth from the National Junior College Innovation & Enterprise Club are exactly the kind of students who have what it takes to convert ideas into winning designs.

The InnoWorks™ @ red dot design museum programme was aimed at helping them to idealize and conceptualise different ideas for competitions such as the RJC Toy Challenge and Citibank Ideas In Action.

And we were overjoyed when 2 of those designs got into both competitions above. I always believe that the red dot design museum is a great nexus for innovation and design. And Sharon, the President of the I&E Club, says it best,' I really enjoyed the exhibition of ideas (at the museum) and seeing how an idea that I had thought of during GEC (have) actually won a RedDot award. This highly motivates me.'

So congratulations to Edmund and his team, the Youth Enterprise Academy team is behind you every step of the way!

Not The Usual Programme

The teacher-in-charge of the Enterprise Club wanted a CCA programme for her students that was a combination of our E³, InnoWorks™ and Board Game programme.


The first session was on the Entrepreneur Mindset as an induction programme for the Secondary 1s who just joined the club, we shared about real-life examples of entrepreneurs and how they can adopt the same attitudes as well as strategies in their everyday school life.

The second session was where we taught them some techniques from our InnoWorks™ programme to help them to conceptualize and improve on ideas for a bazaar during Chinese New Year.


The third session was a board game programme, where students learned about entrepreneurship and how to manage money. I asked a few facilitators from the National Junior College I&E Club to come and help out as well as to share more about some of the things they do at the I&E Club in NJC.
At Youth Enterprise Academy, we connect entrepreneur clubs together. And hopefully at the end of the year, we will be able to do this kind of connection on a much larger scale.