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.

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! :)

InnoWorks™ : Spark That Idea!

I think I forgot to announce this but Youth Enterprise Academy is the Education Partner of the 9th Design Competition organised by Bukit View Secondary School and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.



To help students to find that creative spark they need to create that winning design, a compact version of the programme was customised for the competition and students and teachers from schools like Rulang Primary School, Raffles Girls School (Secondary) and Pasir Ris Primary School came together for an afternoon of learning and fun!

'Hmm where does this piece go?'

Students learn about the importance of Innovation in today's world. It's presentation time! Feedback is always important. And I really like their ideas too!

The red dot design museum is a great place for new ideas to spawn forth from young minds!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students for attending the workshop.

It's not often that we have teachers and students to come together as participants and I'm glad they did, because I think that just the simple task of working together will help to them to bond as a team and I'm confident that they'll be able to do well in the upcoming competition!

I³ Workshop @ St Anthony's Canossian Secondary School from 20th Feb 2008 to 22nd Feb 2008

It was my first time being a facilitator for a YEA programme at St Anthony’s Canossian Secondary School. I was pretty excited about the workshop and have been looking forward to it all week!

On the first and second day of the workshop, board games were the highlights where the girls get to play educational board games as part of their learning. The board games were interesting and interactive as you can easily see that from the happy faces of the girls. The girls were happily playing and cooperated very well with one another. This was most obvious when they're negotiating “deals” among themselves in order to push and promote their businesses. I was impressed by the ‘friendliness’ in their negotiation.

Negotiation of deal being carried out among the 2 players. An “Ok settled!” statement is quickly followed by a swift transaction. If only things are as easy in the real world....

The girls are listening attentively to Donnie for the explanation of the cards and their functions.

On the last day of the workshop, the girls were able to generate many creative ideas for their upcoming entrepreneurial projects. It was impressive to see that the girls are very enthusiastic and supportive of the ideas produced by their classmate. Girl power!

Cracking their brains and putting ideas together to decide on which product or service to provide.

Presenting their innovative ideas!

Good job girls! I am so proud of all of you. Hope that all your ideas would be put into action in the near future and be a great success!

Hope to see you all again soon!

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:

Girls Rulz...

One of the girls in my class wrote that on her group's working plan. And I have to say that I must agree.

Working with the girls of St Anthony's Canossian Secondary School was a new experience and a definite blast.

The girls were able to express their interests, individuality and passion through their business plans in the E³ Progamme.

Some of the ideas that they came up with were really impressive and they really have some very good marketing skills!

A picture speaks a thousand words so here's a few to prove my point.

The girls assess various creative opportunities that they have thought up.

Time for some games! And teachers get to play too!

'I think she should do it!' The girls learn to co-operate 'arrow' one another.

One of the 2 winning teams in the competition, theWHATmag team.

Another team presents their business plan in a mini-competition between the two classes.

I personally feel that it's great that the girls have strong support from the school to act on and follow up from their business ideas from the workshop. I look forward to seeing these plans put in action next year!

All the best girls!

How to Raise Funds for Next Year

The recent training that I had with Temasek Secondary School's I&E Club reinforces the belief that good ideas, good BUSINESS ideas can come from anyone.

Case in point, the students from the club went through a round of InnoWorks™ to generate a fresh arsenal of fund raising ideas for the club.

Their best idea? I won't tell you but I'll give you a hint: similar to the idea of this RJC (or is it former RJC?) student's business idea.

Check it out here : http://donutsonline.zlhub.com/

Here're some snaps.

Mabel shares a funny moment with the students.

Giving the students some food for thought :)

Hard at work!

A group sharing an idea of theirs.

I look forward to see their ideas bear fruit next year :)

Settlers of Catan Board Game Competition

Settlers of Catan isn't the easiest of games to play and can be quite difficult to pick up immediately, especially if you're an unseasoned player.


I conducted the competition for Serangoon Secondary School's I&E Day and expected students to stuggle with the game as the dynamics of european games can be quite different.

But judging by the response and the strategies that were deployed by the students of Serangoon Secondary Schools, they're no pushovers too. They traded, bargained, threatened and cajoled their way to victory. Kudos to them.

There were 2 rounds of competition, where winners of the first round would go on to play the second round. The winners of the second round would go on to win attractive prizes sponsored by Settler's Cafe.

Mr Yeo, the principal, commented on their initiative, stating the school has and will always support new learning initiatives such as learning through board games, and encouraged the winners to step up to take part in the Nationals, if there are any.

Good news for the champions then, there IS a Settlers of Catan National Board Game Competition. When is it going to happen?

Well, I guess you just have to watch this space, I suppose.

Thinking of New Ways to have FunD!

The challenge posed to the Dunearn Secondary 2 cohort was this, to come up with interesting and unique fund-raising ideas for the schools.


Some of the students were a bit reluctant, and they didn't really believe that their ideas will be green-lighted by the school and brought to fruition.

It is often this resignation to fate or the notion that their ideas will not make a difference. Why come up with great ideas if they're all gonna be swept under the carpet? Then there's always this fear that their ideas won't work out. It's often easier to just not do anything than to do something and run the risk of failing

The thing is, reluctant students won't remain that way for long while in my class. It is paramount that my students must always believe in themselves and their ability to come out with an idea that's great.

I got Yun Rui, one of my students a previous programme from National Junior College to help out as a facilitator in my class. Her infectious ice-breaker soon roused everyone and I recoreded clip where my class did a class cheer that brought down the house but it would have been too ear-piercingly loud to put it here.


Here's some footages of the great ideas from the cohort training at Dunearn Secondary.

Sometimes, all it takes for unity is 2 fingers. And with a united team, anything is possible.

I should know :)

Earth Craft

Earth Craft (n): Craft work that is environmentally friendly.


Actually, I just made that up. I'm constantly amazed at the level of talent that I come across in our programmes in school (I sure don't remember being anywhere as creative as these dudes and dudettes when I was their age not too many moons ago.).


But it is, little gems hidden in Northbrooks Secondary School. Enough said. I'll let their work do the talking.

It's still too early to tell, but I bet there's going to be a lot of flowers and bees in this one.

The clay guru shares a funny moment with her students.

Whoever can guess what this is get a prize from me :)

I think this look a lot like me!

And this is Roy from my favorite online comic brought to life. I didn't know you could use key like that.

Recycling's The Way to Go

To make our InnoWorks™ programme at for the Secondary One cohort at Dunearn Secondary more interesting, we decided to up the usual challenge to the students more interesting.
Design, pitch, plan the materials and then redeem for the materials that you need to make your product.


And since each team only had limited amount of points and there were limited resources, it was most interesting to see how they would decide which materials to use.


'Eh, let's use the colgate box.'

'Don't want la! The cardboard so flimsy, plastic bottle better.'

'No plastic will not be good for our product, so hard to decorate it.'

'Then I do lor, come pass to me.'

'I still think colgate box is better.'


Once again, the level of creativity and the quality of their ideas and works never fail to stump me. It's these little surprises that I really look forward to with each programme. I'll post about the great ideas by the Secondary Two cohort sometime later this week when I have the time.


Cheeras, happy holidays to all you students out there and have lots of fun! (But don't forget to revise ok? Heh)