Welcome to Young Enterprise in Reading
In Reading the main programme is the Company Programme. This involves 16-18 year old pupils setting up and running their own business for one academic year. In 2005/06 there were 24 companies running, with around 300 students taking part.
During the year the companies enter the national Young Enterprise Innovation competition. Teams from Reading have won the South East England finals in four of the last six years.
The students get to learn about company finance, marketing, sales, manufacturing, IT, market research, personnel and company law. They also develop their teamwork, presentation, organisation, communication and interpersonal skills.
We are now recruiting volunteers for the current academic year. We have many schools in Reading who will be participating and the students need the guidance of advisers from the business sector to mentor them through the process of setting up and running their own company.
From a training point of view they are actually better than many courses that companies send their employees on, as volunteers of Company programme are giving 1 hour per week to help the students and so will develop their own business skills each week and can put them to use at work with immediate effect. The other bonus is that this training is not only free but also covers Corporate Social Responsibilty and Management Development Programmes within companies.
If this is something you would be interested in doing please contact Jan Thompson, Development Manager for Young Enterprise, email: jenny.scully@yese.org.uk, to find out more. Further information can be found at www.young-enterprise.org.uk. The time commitment is 1 hour each week when you can make it during the academic year and this can be shared amongst 2 advisors if is more suitable.
