News
Congratulations to all the regional finalists of the Company Programme and to Young Enterprise Scotland for putting on a fantastic event last week. The Festival of Youth Enterprise (FOYE) is a great occasion to celebrate entrepreneurship across Scotland, showcasing some fantastic business ideas from the teams in secondary schools throughout the country.
The Company Programme is an initiative of Young Enterprise Scotland that supports around 16,000 young people every year to develop business knowledge, entrepreneurial skills and, ultimately, become more employable. The culmination of their work is the FoYE, which incorporates Company of the Year Awards, Team Programme Awards, Scotland’s Enterprising School Awards, and Volunteer Awards. Around 1,500 students took part in the Company Programme throughout the 2023/24 academic year and 180 businesses were created, from Orkney down to Dumfries and Galloway.
On May 29th, FoYE descended upon Hampden Park, with 13 regional finalists ready to showcase their incredible talents. The standard of reports, presentations and interviews was so high, and it was great to be able to see (and buy) the products created by the student teams, which were exhibited on their stalls for everyone to admire. Some of the products, included games to promote literacy, books to inspire young readers or to connect the generations, cards and jewellery made from sea glass to promote sustainability, wax-based solid scents to raise awareness of the struggling bee population, hand-made chess sets taking inspiration from local landmarks and historical artefacts, and much more.
The day of judging (of reports, presentations and interviews) was followed by a captivating awards ceremony and dinner where the regional finalists awaited their fate