UK YOUTH CELEBRATES ENTERPRISE WEEK 2007
Taking place between the 12th and 18th November, Enterprise Week provides the biggest annual celebration of all things enterprising across the UK. Last year over 448,000 people took part in events nationwide.
As part of the celebration UK Youth is highlighting enterprise projects developed and delivered by young people in the UK Youth network.
UK Youth Chief Executive John Bateman OBE says: “We should be providing young people with the opportunities to explore their interests and provide them with the framework to turn their ideas into reality; encouraging and rewarding creativity, enterprise and initiative”.
Stephen Alambritis, Chair of the Make your Mark campaign says “Already over a third of young people feel they have the personal qualities needed to develop a business idea. During enterprise week we want to inspire even more young people in their teens and twenties to have ideas and make them happen”.
UK Youth’s Youth Achievement Awards scheme, externally accredited by ASDAN, rewards young people’s skills and voluntary participation in local projects. With “66% of young people aged 16-24 involved in informal volunteering”[1] it is not surprising that the awards are now a well-respected national programme, with over 20,000 young people from over 1,000 different youth groups participating in the scheme.
The awards have been praised for engaging young people of all backgrounds in the activities that really interest them; building essential communication, problem-solving, team working, and organisation skills, as well as endowing young people with a sense of achievement and confidence in their unique abilities.
Jill Burdis at Greenfield School in Durham says “When the young people go out into the wide world I want them to be confident in their life skills. As a result of using UK Youth’s Youth Achievement Awards, the majority of my group have become more independent and self-motivated workers which are qualities that employers look for.”
The work of some of the many young people involved in these projects will be showcased at an awards ceremony that will take place early in the New Year.
For further details of the Youth Achievement Awards Programme contact Kerry Pedder, YAA Administrator at UK Youth on 01425 675107 or email kerry@ukyouth.org
For further media assistance (interviews, quotes, images, comment) contact Laura McVeigh, Media Relations, UK Youth on 07779 617055 or email laura@ukyouth.org
Notes for Editors
- UK Youth is the leading national youth work charity – www.ukyouth.org supporting over 750,000 young people, 40,000 volunteers and 7,000 youth clubs, groups and projects across the UK. UK Youth helps young people to raise their aspirations, realise their potential and have their achievements recognised.
- Established in 1997 by UK Youth, the Youth Achievement Awards are now well established in a wide range of youth organisations, schools and educational projects. The Youth Achievement Awards are an activity-based approach to peer education, and help young people develop a wide range of life skills through a flexible and informal approach.
- The Make your Mark campaign is the national campaign to create an enterprise culture in the UK. The not for profit campaign is backed by a coalition of businesses, charities, education bodies and government. It is also supported by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regularity Reform and is endorsed by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
[1] Source: Russell Commission Final Report, Ian M Russell, March 2005 www.russellcommission.org
