Lion Foundation Y.E.S

Tuesday, 22nd October 2024 at 10:59am

By Hailey Helwes (Year 13)

In the first week of the holidays, I was invited to go on an all-expenses paid trip to Wellington for the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) Entrepreneurs in Action (EIA) weekend.

The event happens annually and sees 66 YES students, corporate hosts, and YES alumni compete in two back-to-back business challenges over three days.

The first challenge was the Embracing Tomorrow's challenge which focused on advising the YES charity on how they should revolutionize their entrepreneurial programs to prepare young people for the future job market.

My team VML won the first challenge with our idea of YES teina, a program where YES would start entrepreneurial education in primary schools to focus on younger children. This was presented via a pitch completed in the ‘lion's den’ at Massey University and was in front of everyone else and a team of judges. It was super exciting to be able to win this first challenge and be given a business scholarship at Wellington Massey University!

The second challenge was the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) challenge. This challenge took place over two days and focused on creating an export strategy for a fictional skincare company. We didn't do as well in this challenge, but it was still exciting to complete. For this challenge, we spent one day at our corporate hosts' office, which was lovely as it was bright pink and blue and even had a mini golf course!

Overall, the weekend was amazing, and I would recommend any Year 12s who are doing YES next year apply. It was an opportunity to be around like-minded teens and develop my entrepreneurial skills in a supportive environment. It was busy and tiring but so worth it!