Young Enterprise (YE) is a national education charity with a mission: to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise. YE runs six programmes, each for a different age-group from 5 to 25+. There are five types of group programmes: primary (usually 7 to 12 years), project business (14 to 15 years), company (15 to 19 years), team (15 to 19+ years) graduate (18 to 25+ years) and an entrepreneurial masterclass (16 to 20 years). These are run on a "learning by doing" principle. They are undertaken annually by a large numbers of students in UK schools. colleges and universities supported by national and local companies. Participation in YE is voluntary Regional organisations are responsible for running YE in England with a similar organisations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Currently there are over 113,000 students, over 11,500 volunteers from business, over 2,000 supporting businesses and over 3,400 schools, colleges & universities taking part. The YE vision is ?That all young people will have the opportunity to gain personal experience of how business works, understand the role it plays in providing employment and creating prosperity, and be inspired to improve their own prospects and the competitiveness of the UK.? Funding support comes from national and local businesses. This funding pays for the running costs of the organisation as well as for the programme materials and training for students, business advisers and teachers in the field. YE programmes create a partnership between education and business. These programmes offer real-life business experience to students of all ages and abilities and volunteers also have the opportunity to work outside their discipline, to develop management and business skills, and to be part of a fun, exciting learning experience for their local community. No previous experience or expert knowledge is required and involvement can be for as little as 1-2 hours a week for ten weeks but it usually considerably more. In addition to preparing them for their future working life, the skills and experience developed by students through YE support subjects throughout the curriculum. They can also contribute to objectives for public examinations (GCSE, A Level, NVQ and GNVQ), and three of the programmes offer an optional OCR accredited Young Enterprise Exam. YE is an excellent example of school/employer links, and is invaluable in developing Key Skills in students. Young Enterprise UK is a member of the worldwide Young Enterprise / Junior Achievement network of almost 100 countries and is a founding member of Young Enterprise Europe - http://www.young-enterprise-europe.com with sister organisations in 19 member countries in Young Enterprise Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and also has extensive international links (http://www.company-programme.org )In order to enhance the learning opportunities with a European focus, Young Enterprise Europe organises a number of events and activities such as an annual European Trade Fair and Congress as well as the annual European Company Competition. YE produces an extensive annual review http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/public/annual/annual.asp(review for 2002).
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