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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 andmeaningful lives.

Designed and developed after three years of intensive research and consultation by TheEducation With Enterprise Trust (EWET), the YES Programme's mission is:

TO EMPOWER YOUNG PEOPLE, THROUGH ENTERPRISE, TO BECOMEMASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES . Or put another way, to help more and moreyoung 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 anextramural multiracial school based "learning by doing" programme for grade 9 (std 7), grade10 (std 8) and grade 11 (std 9) pupils.

The programme involves whole communities, including local business people, trade unionrepresentatives, educationalists and other community members and is designed to createawareness and interest in free-market entrepreneurship as a career option amongst youngpeople.

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 avariety of business skills during their twice weekly meetings. Learning the importance andmeans of creating capital ownership and wealth within their community.

The medium to longer term aim being to establish a future entrepreneurial stratum, especiallyin regions of low income populations, which can then help create jobs, build communityresources 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 speciallytrained 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 tothe Local Partnership (LP), who's members judge and evaluate the students progress.

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YES Societies in action

Once established, a YES Society commences by electing their office bearers. Firstly for theSociety as a whole and then again within each of the three grade 9, 10 and 11 (standard 7,8and 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 ConstitutionalAdviser Team Chairpersons

The Society and Teams can also appoint their own Temporary Committees to handledelegated 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 "Societyprojects". These sessions are chaired by the Society President, with the Society Secretarytaking the minutes and other committee members reporting when called upon to do so. This isakin to divisions meeting within a large corporation.

Teams separate for their other weekly meeting, each chaired and run by their owncommittees. These are the workshop sessions where teams focus on their specific "Teamprojects" and receive guidance and skills training in a variety of essential businesscompetencies.

YES Members are tested in 17 Business Competencies

Throughout the three year programme YES Members focus on developing skills in thefollowing 17 entrepreneurial competencies, with the content of each becoming broader andmore 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 developskills 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 individualteam members whom a panel deems to have satisfied the laid down criteria then receive the

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"Credit Sticker" for their level of that particular competency to attach to their competencycertificate.

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 bestagainst the best.

The qualifying route is not easy. For a student to make it to the conference they must not onlyexcel in their own Society, but also within their full LP area, their Region and finally gainselection 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 alsomade: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 byencouraging young people to consider entrepreneurship as a career option, to expect all whoparticipate to start their own businesses would be unrealistic.

For this reason The Education With Enterprise Trust (EWET) envisages that YES Graduateswill successfully go one of three ways - viz.:

Start own business (target 21%) Further their education Secure formal sector employment

EMPOWERING PEOPLE THROUGH ENTERPRISE TO BECOMEMASTERS OF THEIR OWN DESTINIES.

The Education With Enterprise TrustA Section 18A Trust (Tax Exeption) Ref. 18/9/2/11/1064Fund Raising No. 077002850009 Reg. No. 5961/9249C Stuart Street, PO Box 150, Harrismith, 9880, South AfricaTelephone: (058) 6230104 / 6230649 Fax: (058) 6230107E-Mail: ewet@ewet.org .za

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