Young Enterprise Scheme
Stand Aside Sir Richard It’s Our Turn Now
words | Eve Maddock-Jones
In this age of young people having a more diverse range of opportunities open to them there’s a development in the desire to “be more”. It’s now a more realistic prospect to make a career on your own as opposed to 50 years ago, when if you told your guidance counsellor that you wanted to be an entrepreneur you’d probably just be met with a quizzical look and a pamphlet advertising the “joys of office life” slid across the table. To aid this entrepreneurial idea an American named Sir Walter Salomon founded the Young Enterprise Scheme in 1962, with the philosophy of “learning by doing” setting out to inspire teenagers to grasp the opportunities available to them and create their own careers. The UK followed suit in 1963 where the first programme was launched in Chatham, Kent, with Gibraltar only becoming involved in 2008. The scheme is set up as a competition, whereby each country involved holds their own regional competitions between schools in local areas. The winning business group, made up of students, is then entered into the European Competition where an overall winner is selected. It all starts at home though right in the common rooms of the local high schools. This year in Gibraltar there are currently six teams remaining: Slick, with a mobile phone stand; Ease, selling a comfort grip for bags; Energize who’ve designed a portable mobile phone charger; Plumpy Penguins who provide a
selection of recipes including local Gibraltarian cuisine; Superficial and Hydropz who’ve created a waterproof covering for satchels. The product can be anything of the group’s choice, but they’re solely responsible for the funding, business management, advertisement, in fact, all the aspects of a business. This is the genius nature of the Young Enterprise Scheme; it teaches school children the tools of how to create a substantial business themselves. Major
The product can be anything of the group’s choice, but they’re solely responsible for the funding, business management, advertisement, in fact, all the aspects of a business
business empires in the world — Apple, AliBaba, Sony — started in the exact same way as these Young Enterprise groups, people with an idea trying to create something new. British Prime Minister David Cameron remarked that “Young Enterprise is vital in fostering the culture of enterprise we need right across our country”. This is very much the case since, to roll out an old cliché, “the children are the future”. Within the schools of today lie the next breed of Raymond A. Krocs, Asa G. Candlers and Howard Schultzs. Sir Richard Branson, multi-billionaire businessman, recognises how “the organisation [Young Enterprise] is playing a vital part in creating the next generation of great entrepreneurs”. The most success Gibraltar has had in the Scheme came two years ago when team DevelopI.T created the Key2Gib app, coming second overall in the finals that year. The app is a tourist device, giving information about the main tourist attractions to be found in Gibraltar. The
The Gibraltar macaque experience A new, educational and non-intrusive Barbary Macaque tour has been set up by Blands Travel and Monkey Talk. The ‘Gibraltar Macaque Experience’ has been devised with the aim of providing tourists to the Rock with an exclusive opportunity to learn more about these animals in the company of a local primatologist, observing them in their natural habitat and respecting their individual space. It will also provide the local community with the opportunity to further their understanding of these primates. The two-hour tour will be launched this spring and will be available throughout the year. Brian Gomila, a qualified primatologist will be directing the tours and providing a wealth of information about the animals’ social organisation, hierarchy, natural feeding habits and general behaviour. The tour, described as “a familiarisation outing”, will be held every Tuesday and Thursday during the last two hours of daylight, which experts believe is the best time of the day to observe the macaques . The exclusive tour will take participants through Royal Anglian Way footpath, to spend time with the macaques away from the roadside at sunset. n
50
48-51_mar.indd 50
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • MAY 2014
25/04/2014 18:45