Nelson Region’s Young Entrepreneurs come together

21 February 2008

News Release

For Immediate Release

Nelson Region’s Young Entrepreneurs come together for E-Day

Nelson region’s young entrepreneurs come together for the Top of the South Enterprise Day (E-Day) tommorrow, Friday 22nd February at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. The event marks the launch of the Lions Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) for 2008.

YES is an experience-based business programme developed by Enterprise New Zealand Trust for secondary school students 16 – 18 year olds.  It involves working through the process of setting up and running a business, for real.  Students invest real money, produce real products and keep the real profits.  This scheme allows students to run a business within the safe environment of support and formal structure.

E-Day will be taking place at NMIT between 9am and 3pm. Approximately 120 students from 5 local schools will be attending including Garin College, Golden Bay High School, Motueka High, Nayland College, and Nelson College.

E-Day is set up to inspire and promote students through the process of brainstorming, developing and evaluating product ideas and there’s a national award to strive for.

The students can participate in four regional activities during the year, firstly E-Day, followed by business plan presentations, a trade fair and finally the regional awards presentation.  Each regional winning team goes on to participate at the National Awards held in Wellington in November.

Students will be presenting their business ideas to a team of local experts at E-day and they’ll be given feedback on how realistic they are. The experts who will be there tommorrow include Paul Steere, Chairman NZ Red Cross and CEO NZ King Salmon; Bryce Gilchrist of the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants; Jo Rainey of New Zealand Training Enterprise; and John Inglis, Business Lecturer and Company Director.

Bev Wells the Regional Coordinator for YES and NMIT’s Employment Scholarship

Coordinator says E-Day provides a fantastic opportunity for the students to have an uninterrupted school day focusing on developing their company and product ideas, and to hear advice and support first-hand from business experts. 

“We have appreciated the strong support received from the business community, with a number of new business mentors volunteering to support the students throughout the year and with additional prize sponsorship available for teams competing in the regional competitions this year.”

“Nationally, the scheme experienced growth in student participation in 2007 with 3,500 students registered.  It is hoped that by 2009, the top of the South region will match national growth trends with more students choosing business studies as part of their subject selection for years 12 and 13,” says Bev Wells.

“For students, Young Enterprise is a great opportunity to realise their uniqueness, develop their strengths, work together as a team and possibly make a profit at the same time.  Like any other team event, YES is about working towards goals and taking all the steps necessary to achieve them,” she says.

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