YES promotes youths in their endeavour to become self-employed – Ignea being one concrete example
“It’s never too early to learn, if one wants to be an entrepreneur.” But can you really learn to be an entrepreneur? One thing is certain: youths can already learn skills today that can be of use to them in the future as entrepreneurs. YES, a non-profit organization, is active specifically in this area. Also the successful ‘mini-business’ ignea has taken advantage of the invaluable services offered by YES.
The non-profit Young Enterprise Switzerland (YES) developers and offers practice based business training programs for students to bring them closer to the business field. Future entrepreneurs should already today have the opportunity to gain knowledge in the areas of; “Linked and Structural Thinking”, “Business Ethics”, “Convincing Presence and Presentation”, and “Focused Goal Setting”.
One way of achieving this goal is through the YES Company Programme. High school students start and operate a real-world mini-business during the school year. Every member takes on a role within the company and helps to produce the product that is to be sold. Active support for the young entrepreneurs is provided by experienced business consultants, as well as YES tutors. Aside from participating in workshops, young entrepreneurs participate in trade shows and take part in both national and international business competitions.
Five high school students from the Kollegium Spiritus Sanctus Brig are currently using this unique opportunity to their advantage. Their business idea, ignea, received two national awards in Zurich. Both the Coop Sustainability Award and the Most Potential Startup Award was bestowed upon them.
We here at STARTUPS.CH fully support he idea of promoting the entrepreneurial spirit even at a young age in order to maximize this potential to fuel the Swiss market in the coming years. For this reason we have decided to help-out this initiative by providing a free incorporation for the project realization, so that the young team from Valais can gain traction.
STARTUPS.CH wishes the yound entrepreneurs all the best in theior endevour. More information about the entrepreneurs themselves and theor compoany can be found on ignea.ch and in this radio interview.
