With the start of a new academic year, it’s not just teachers and pupils who are heading back to college.
Employees of businesses throughout Gibraltar will also find themselves back in the classroom over the coming months at Gibraltar College, working as volunteer business advisers to Young Enterprise companies.
Through the Young Enterprise Company Programme, young people aged 15 to 19, set up and run their own real company for one academic year, with the support and guidance of a Business Adviser, a volunteer from the business community who acts as facilitator and mentor to the students. The programme is based on a principle of learning-by-doing, and exists to provide students with a relatively safe environment in which to learn by trial and error, and from their own mistakes, how a company operates, and how business works.
“It truly is an exciting and motivating experience, both for the students you support, and for yourself as a volunteer,” says John Lowe, Managing Director of the UK’s Avalon Training and 2005 Young Enterprise Business Adviser of the Year. “The change in the students from the beginning of the experience to the end is quite dramatic as they grow and develop in terms of their business skills and knowledge, but also in confidence and their aspiration to succeed. It’s great to know that you have played a part in making that happen, and the spin-off benefit is that you have had the chance to develop your own mentoring skills along the way.”
Company Programme Business Advisers attend a 1-2 hour weekly “board meeting” with the students, where they are on hand to offer help and advice, and to stimulate and facilitate discussion and debate. Some Business Advisers volunteer on an individual basis, and some volunteer as part of their employers’ volunteering programme.
At the beginning of the summer, and in preparation for the autumn launch of Young Enterprise in Gibraltar, the Chamber of Commerce hosted two training sessions for Business Advisers and Link Teachers here in Gibraltar.
If you are interested in becoming a Young Enterprise volunteer, you can find out more, and volunteer on-line at www.young-enterprise.org.uk or contact Ken Longster, Project Manager in Gibraltar at ken.longster@yeyh.org.uk for an informal discussion.