Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise is a not-for-profit business and enterprise education charity in England & Wales. It is made up of three organisations, Young Enterprise, Young Enterprise Scotland and Young Enterprise Northern Ireland, the latter two operating individually under a license agreement to the former. Young Enterprise's mission statement is "to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise."

History

Early history

Sir Walter Salomon founded Young Enterprise in the 1962/1963 academic year, based on the American Junior Achievement programme. By the 1973/1974 academic year, there were twenty-two area boards across the UK running Young Enterprise programmes. In 1977, the European Federation of Young Enterprise was formed, with the UK, France and Belgium amongst the founding members. This was then renamed in 2002 to 'Junior Achievement/ Young Enterprise Europe'.

In the 1980s, the Company Competition began to take on the form it has today. Young Enterprise companies would submit reports to judges who selected the best from each region. The six regional winners were then invited to attend the National Finals in London, where they would deliver a presentation. Midland Bank (now HSBC) also took on the Chairmanship of Young Enterprise in 1988.