YES celebrates 40th birthday

The Young Enterprise Scheme is celebrating 40 years of helping young Kiwis become New Zealand’s business leaders of tomorrow. New research shows measurable social return on investment.

Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), a charity who’s alumni have gone on to found companies including Sharesies, Xero, Kiwibank, and Flamingo Scooters, has released its GoodMeasure report, which clearly shows the significant social value YES programmes have achieved for more than 5000 students this year alone.

The report, conducted by ImpactLab and chaired by Sir Bill English, shows the social value (the social impact in dollar terms that a programme achieves for participants over their lifetime) is $2,753 for each participant. At a programme cost of $432 per participant the measurable benefit as a proportion of programme cost is 580 percent.

Every $1 invested in YES results in $5.80 of measurable social return on investment, quantifying the overall social value at $17,965,183 for the 2021/22 financial year.

YES engages with students in 85 percent of New Zealand secondary schools through a range of programmes and classroom resources and aims to tap into their entrepreneurial mindset by providing them with necessary tools to become effective business leaders and entrepreneurs.

YES Chief Excitement Officer, Terry Shubkin, says the charity is pleased to be able to quantify their meaningful support for young Kiwis. “We see every day the positive impact that YES programmes have in the lives of young Kiwis, but it’s wonderful to be able to quantify the benefits by measuring social value.

“We’ve always known that YES helps young people foster an entrepreneurial mindset so they can go on to become founders and world-ready, but in addition this report has also shown that YES participants have a reduced likelihood of risky behaviour and addiction, increased specialised skills, improved mental health, and increased academic achievement.”

Nick Hyland, YES alumni and Co-Founder of electric scooter and bike share company Flamingo Scooters, says YES provided him a platform to test his ideas, learn from his mistakes, and grow both personally and professionally, while creating many opportunities and connections for him straight out of high school.

“The impact YES has on students is phenomenal. Not only do they create entrepreneurs, but a network of entrepreneurs that can connect and work together to change the world”, shares Hyland.

YES has helped more than 150,000 students since its inception 40 years ago and continues its ongoing focus on diversifying its programmes to ensure they are accessible, inclusive and valuable to all students. This includes the offering of a new Pasifika programme, Toloa, which offers innovation challenges for recipients of the Toloa scholarship to help students apply their science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics knowledge in a practical setting.

Simon Bridges, Chief Executive of the Auckland Business Chamber, is a proud supporter of the charity and says the results speak for themselves.

“The report confirms what I’ve long suspected; Young Enterprise really works in turning today’s students into tomorrow’s business leaders.

“It’s great to not only see YES’ significant growth trajectory which has doubled in the last five years, but also the focus and dedication I’ve seen out of their alumni as they come of out of the programme work and world ready.”