Young Enterprise Scotland, a charity that has offered enterprise education to schools for more than 30 years, has been saved from imminent closure.
Economy secretary Kate Forbes announced in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon that she had approved £285,000 for two programmes to be run by the charity this school year.
Young Enterprise (YE) Scotland said last week that its future was under immediate threat and that up to 31 jobs would be lost if no emergency funding was found, after having lost its full government grant.
Today, Ms Forbes told MSPs: “Since 2022, the Scottish government has advised Young Enterprise Scotland, along with other stakeholders, that all future entrepreneurial education programmes will move to competitive funding. That approach is consistent with other entrepreneurial funds and is in the DNA of entrepreneurship.”
She added: “Although Young Enterprise Scotland was not successful in bidding for entrepreneurial education funding because of the strength of other applications, many of which had not previously received government support, I met the chair and chief executive of Young Enterprise Scotland this morning to update them on the conversations about additional support that had already taken place with officials, and I have approved the requested £285,000 to run into this year the two programmes that were previously funded by the Scottish government.”
Ensuring ‘ongoing viability’
Ms Forbes said: “That will cover expenditure to date for the financial year from April 2024 to March 2025. Young Enterprise Scotland has confirmed that that will ensure the organisation’s ongoing viability.”
Last year, YE Scotland worked with more than 18,000 school and college students, often through its Company Programme that introduces students aged 13-19 to “the realities of the world of work”.
In the past three years, more than 1,000 students have gained a YE Scotland enterprise qualification (SCQF level 6, equivalent to Higher).
Speaking last week as YE Scotland’s funding situation emerged, chief executive Emma Soanes said that the charity’s future would likely be “untenable with the loss of our major income source”.
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