The Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) is calling for application for the Youth Entrepreneurs Support (YES). This is an initiative that supports youth entrepreneurs and stimulates youth businesses. It is mainly for young people between the ages of 20 -30 with established businesses.
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The Youth Entrepreneurs Support (YES)
The Youth Entrepreneurs Support (YES) initiative by Africa and Europe Committee of the Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) seeks to support Youth entrepreneurs in both regions and to stimulate youth businesses to strategise resiliently for stability and recovery. Activities span from data collection to understanding challenges, webinar series, discussion with experts, boot camp, skill-building sessions, and advocacy strategies.
The initiative seeks to:
- Produce a regional study of challenges faced by Youth businesses and document good practices cum solutions to support youth businesses recover and mitigate future challenges.
- Conduct webinars and boot camp aimed at building capacities and equipping business owners with skills.
- Support youth business recovery and advocate for youth enterprise funds.
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What To Expect
The Youth Entrepreneurs Support webinar series and bootcamp will:
- Explore key issues relating to youth businesses.
- Build the capacity of youth entrepreneurs and innovators.
- Provide a platform where business owners can network with themselves and experts.
- Encourage sharing and learning of best practices.
- Facilitate acquisition of skills geared towards finding solutions to challenges.
The program will hold from the 7 August 2020 – 29 August 2020. It will be a closed event, and only selected persons will be contacted. Also, it will be an online (zoom platform) where only selected participants will receive a link to join.
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Background
The Coronavirus pandemic which has placed the world in a disposition of unprecedented economic shock has largely affected the economic security of young people.
Youth startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Youth innovative entrepreneurship, and businesses which are the areas that contribute to the stability of the economic security of young people are the sectors negatively impacted by the pandemic. Interestingly, this is only an amplification of already prevailing situations of poor social security, reduced funding, capital generation, and increasing unemployment before the pandemic.
The downside of the pandemic effects on youth enterprises is therefore worth noting. These businesses stand the risk of losing funding opportunities since funds are now being diverted. In addition, there have been reduced work hours in the event of the lockdown and the drastic reduction in market prices for products. These consequently resulted in the collapse of businesses with inevitable accompanying effects of job losses and the crippling of economies.
Nevertheless, there are inspiring stories of young entrepreneurs innovating to support their communities and families, driving their businesses forward despite the pandemic. While this is a crisis situation, it can also be seen as a window of opportunity to promote innovation, ensure sustained business strategies, strengthen the resilience of youth enterprises, and improve partnerships.
It is in this vein that Youth Entrepreneurs Support (YES) rolls out initiative to mitigate these challenges and ameliorate the innovations of youth businesses in the face of the pandemic.
Registration for the Youth entrepreneurs support (YES) begins on 12th – 17th July 2020. So, if you wish to benefit from the initiative, use this link to read more and apply http://commonwealthyouthcouncil.com/youth-entrepreneurs-support-yes-initiative/
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