All news articles

18.10.2023

22.9.2023

The Easiest, Hard Decision I’ve Ever Made

For those of you that are interested in reading about how I made the easiest hardest decision to resign....

21.9.2023

20.9.2023

"Take everything that comes your way with both hands" | Ryan Hooper-Smith

Ryan Hooper-Smith participated in the Young Enterprise Scheme while studying at Upper Hutt College in 2019. We recently chatted to Ryan to learn more about his YES journey, the impact it had on his life, and the valuable advice he has for current YES participants.

27.9.2023

18.9.2023

Alumni Awards 2023 Winners

Congratulations to all the winners, finalists and nominees in our 2023 YES Alumni Awards!

17.8.2023

15.8.2023

YES Northland Trade Fair Celebrates and Empowers Young Entrepreneurs

Sail Inc. (pictured) took out the Top Energy YES Northland Trade Fair Presence Award.

27.8.2023

15.8.2023

YES Alumni Awards 2023 Finalists Announced!

Young Enterprise are proud to announce that we have selected our finalists for the YES Alumni Awards 2023!

1.8.2023

31.7.2023

Sleepless in Timaru: Toothpaste tablet aims to help with sleep

Timaru Boys High School student company, Pearly White, have made toothpaste tablets which have sleep-inducing properties aimed at solving insomnia.

15.8.2023

1.8.2023

Waimea College students leading the way

Waimea College is leading the way in this year’s Youth Enterprise Scheme (YES) with business team Fruitbay Sorbet coming first in the latest challenge.

18.7.2023

17.7.2023

Entrepreneur visits capital for workshop

Olivia Edmonds (16) represented Otago at a recent Entrepreneurs in Action workshop in Wellington. (Photo: Peter McIntosh)

6.7.2023

30.6.2023

"Life is too short to worry about what someone else thinks"

Meet Sam Pratt, a Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) alum from Aparima College who participated in YES in 2021.

3.7.2023

Young 'Entrepreneurs in Action' spend their weekend tackling real world business problems

In early July, 60 secondary students from across Aotearoa participated in ’Entrepreneurs in Action’ (EIA)

6.7.2023

27.6.2023

YES changed the way I viewed the world

Meet Charlotte Print (YES Class of 2019 and 2020); entrepreneur and the CEO of Velocity, the University of Auckland's student-led program for innovation and entrepreneurship.

26.6.2023

University of Otago student wins national tech award

A digital refurbishment initiative, co-chaired by University of Otago student and YES alum Owyn Aitken, received national acknowledgement at the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards in Christchurch last week

4.7.2023

16.6.2023

Alumni Advisory Group 2023

Young Enterprise Trust is excited to introduce the members of the Alumni Advisory Group for 2023

4.7.2023

19.6.2023

Young Enterprise Alumni Awards Nominations Open!

Nominations are now open for the Young Enterprise Alumni Awards 2023!

20.6.2023

16.7.2022

Alumni Awards 2022 Winners

We celebrated successful alumni at our 2022 Alumni Awards. Congratulations to all the winners!

30.5.2023

25.5.2023

Students create mental health journal - because it matters

Three enterprising high school students have developed a journal for young people struggling with their mental health.

8.5.2023

Horouta YES pair inspired by scholarship experiences

Two Tairāwhiti rangatahi involved in the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) have returned inspired after completing separate scholarships.

3.4.2023

2023 Business Hall of Fame Laureates Announced

Young Enterprise Trust has announced the seven individuals who will be inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame on 10th August, at the annual black-tie gala event.

27.2.2023

27.1.2023

Information Shearing

Twin brothers Jack and Archie McDonald from Cashmere High School are changing the way the world does business cards thanks to some woolly innovation and futuristic thinking.

7.2.2023

13.1.2023

Young Enterprise welcomes new Youth Representative to Board of Trustees

Leilani Fa’aiuaso participated in YES in 2019-20 and was an alumni mentor at EIA in 2022

12.1.2023

11.1.2023

Student addressing the digital divide

YES alumnus Owyn Aitken is majoring in Data Science, minoring in Public Health and Finance at University of Otago.

16.12.2022

NZ Māori Tourism head pledges $10k to Rotorua young enterprise's Raukura Rangatahi Fund

The New Zealand Māori Tourism chief executive has pledged $10,000 so the legacy of a coffee business run by two Rotorua teenagers can continue.

8.12.2022

7.12.2022

Otago students’ natural sun protection wins YES Company of the Year 2022

Hard work paid off for Otago Girls' High School students as their haircare business, Sole, won Company of the Year at the YES National Awards 2022

5.12.2022

22.11.2022

Young Enterprise students impress at Hawke's Bay Business Awards

A business pitch, an awards dinner and an impromptu auction - all in a day's work for Pūkare Cards!

17.11.2022

Teenage artist creates playing cards to help young people in the Rainbow community

A teenage artist has created an educational game to help people understand different LGBTQI+ terms. Bless Groome, a 16-year-old from Hokitika, has created a deck of playing cards with all the different flags representing 25 sexual orientations and gender identities. The cards also include the terms in Te Reo Māori.

15.11.2022

14.11.2022

Manurewa High School students inspire with YES success

Resilience and the work-life balancing act have been the greatest learnings for Manurewa High School student Leonada Manu’atu, while taking part in the 2022 Young Enterprise Scheme. Leonada, 18, who hails from Tonga and was raised in New Zealand, helped lead her peers Selina Helg, Luseane Langoia, and Taeao Pomale-Time to YES success at the recent Regional Awards, with their company MoonWood Canvas.

14.11.2022

Young Timaru businesswomen's waste mask project makes it to national level

The three Timaru teenagers who found a way to save disposable face masks from going to landfill, have been recognised for their hard work, making it to the national level of the Young Enterprise Scheme competition. Abby Lowe, 16, Charlotte Boyce, and Jessamy Roadley, both 17, and students at Craighead Diocesan School, are part of the school’s business class and take part in the Young Enterprise Scheme, and winning the South Canterbury regionals competition recently.

7.11.2022

A business card made of wool? It's just the start for award-winning teenage twins

Business cards come in all shapes and sizes and in a range of materials – but have you ever seen one made from wool? Now you can. The concept has been developed by a two Christchurch high school students – identical twins Archie and Jack MacDonald – and it has won them top spot in a “Dragon’s Den-style” business competition.

1.11.2022

Otago Girls' trio named young enterprise champions

They could be described as Sole sisters. Three friends from Otago Girls' High School have been named the Otago regional champions in the Young Enterprise Scheme, a long-running initiative which aimed to give pupils a taste of business. Jenna Willis (18), Elsha Bulmer (18) and Morgan Tassey (17) developed Sole, a colour matching dry shampoo with added natural ingredients to enhance sun protection to the scalp.

31.10.2022

Tool to save houseplants named winner of Taranaki Young Enterprise Scheme Awards

Two teenage boys who invented a product to save their parents’ houseplants have come out on top at the Taranaki Young Enterprise Scheme Awards. Jayden Clarke and Ashkan Azarkish, of New Plymouth Boys High School, started business EzSoil as part of Young Enterprise and created a digital plant monitor which enables you to keep track of your pot plant’s moisture, sunlight, temperature and humidity requirements via an app on your phone.

27.10.2022

26.10.2022

Eco-friendly Toothpaste Tablets A Winner For SBHS Student

Aubrey Page has the biggest smile on his face today after being chosen as the overall Southland Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) company of the year. The Year 12 Southland Boys’ High School student has been selling Eco-friendly toothpaste tablets under his brand Eco Smile since May, and managed to impress a panel of nine judges at the Invercargill Working Mens’ Club today.

21.10.2022

20.10.2022

X marks the spot for Helicopter Golf Ball drop

If you don’t fancy your golfing accuracy, but still love a day on the green – this competition might be for you.

31.10.2022

Young Enterprise Helps People to be Better People

Wayne Baird is the owner of The Alternative Board in Hawkes Bay and Taupō, but in 1983, he was a 16-year-old at East Otago Boys High School participating in the Young Enterprise Scheme.

13.10.2022

Christchurch Girls' High students start innovative business to tackle drink driving

Six Christchurch Girls’ High School students are raising awareness about the dangers of drink driving by creating and selling car air fresheners.

19.10.2022

12.10.2022

Students say YES to business success

The aroma of their bath bombs and body scrub is delicious, and sweet success will surely follow for the latest business venture from Team Whare Āwhina.

19.10.2022

22.9.2022

Addressing the financially illiterate elephant in the room

In a world where ‘money’ can be treated like a four-letter word, the students behind Budget Basics, a Young Enterprise Scheme group from Wellington East Girls’ College, are committed to breaking down the taboo on the topic with their new board game, Life Buy a Budget.

13.10.2022

6.9.2022

Pūkare Cards: Hawke's Bay students find nationwide success with te reo flash cards

A student-produced tool that utilises te reo Māori and emotive cards to help youth express themselves has successfully spread to schools and child care centres across the country.

13.10.2022

29.8.2022

YES product inspired by students experience

Sullivan-Roberts is a year 13 student at Christchurch’s St Thomas of Canterbury College, and the experience has inspired a business studies project – a CPR resuscitation mask with a QR code that shows the location of the nearest public defibrillator. The idea has been entered into the Young Enterprise Scheme awards.

29.8.2022

28.8.2022

Head girl founds hijab firm

The "Girl Boss" badge — amid a plethora of achievements on the blazer of Bayfield High School head girl Sofea Haizal— says it all. Sofea (17), who plans to study international business at university next year, already has her own business set up through Young Enterprise New Zealand, which she intends to continue after she leaves school.

27.7.2022

Young Enterprise welcomes 3 new prominent business leaders to their Board of Trustees

Young Enterprise Trust has recently appointed 3 new prominent business leaders to join their Board of Trustees.

21.6.2022

The high schoolers hoping to teach you about Matariki

Inspired by Matariki a group of Taranaki students spied a business opportunity to upskill Kiwis on Māori mātauranga, or knowledge. The Young Enterprise business team Te Pārongo, or “The Information”, is made up of four students from New Plymouth’s Francis Douglas Memorial College.

13.10.2022

1.6.2022

Timaru Teens aim to turn discarded masks into planter boxes

They have become one of the most common litter items since the pandemic started, but now a group of Timaru teenagers wants to turn disposable masks into something useful. Three Craighead Diocesan School students are on a mission to turn disposable masks into planter boxes, with the number of masks they have seen on the ground, prompting them to tackling the mask pollution problem.

27.5.2022

Young entrepreneur honouring mum while raising funds for mental health

A teenage entrepreneur is donating profits from her young enterprise business to mental health, after losing her mother to suicide at a young age. Mak Durey, 17, lost her mother when she was only 11 years old, and now wants to do anything she can to prevent others from suffering the same grief. The Marton student is donating the profits from her line of pamper gift boxes to the Mental Health Foundation.

13.10.2022

26.5.2022

BizVenture Japan back for 2022 with new partner onboard

Following hot on the heels of the New Zealand Prime Minister’s visit to Japan in April 2022, the organisations who brought BizVenture Japan to life in September 2021 are back in action.

25.5.2022

The tool created by two teenage boys that will keep your indoor plants alive

After their parents kept killing indoor plants at home, Jayden Clark and Ashkan Azarkish got together and came up with a product to help. The teenagers are used to working with each other. They teamed up as part of their Young Enterprise Scheme class last year at New Plymouth Boys’ High School. They have now created an all-in-one digital plant monitor, called Sprout, that enables you to keep track of your pot plant’s moisture, sunlight, temperature and humidity requirements via an app on your phone.

13.10.2022

19.5.2022

Taradale students' Pūkare Cards part of Young Enterprise Scheme

A group of young start-up students have an ambitious product that aims to utilize te reo Māori and emotive cards to help youth express themselves. Four students from Taradale High School have created Pūkere Cards, a business concept as part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme.

21.4.2022

Students' motoring kit is all about preparing for the unprepared

The Oh Shit Kit is the brainchild of Opihi College students Ashleigh Griffiths, Brody Cattermole, and Rickie Beecroft-Suddens, who are all part of the young enterprise class. The group of three started a company call Smart Supplys (sic) where they sell their emergency car kits and they currently have a Mother's Day gift box available until May.

14.4.2022

13.4.2022

Talented young Kiwis speak to the world at Expo 2020 Dubai

Two sustainable Kiwi brands that aligned with New Zealand's Expo theme are run by 18-year-old Kiwi students Max Donaldson and Robert Donohoe, Abby Green and Alex Livingstone. The young entrepreneurs launched their respective companies GreenKiwi Supplements and Abalro Health in 2020. Both winners of the New Zealand at Expo 2020 and Young Enterprise Scheme (YES)'s Global Kaitiakitanga Project, with the prize a trip to the World Expo in Dubai.

14.4.2022

8.4.2022

Pupil develops trampers’ toothpaste idea

The business idea of a 16-year-old Invercargill pupil is attracting smiles and attention from hikers and stores across the country. When Aubrey Page, of Southland Boys’ High School, had to develop a business as part of a course and the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), he immediately knew he wanted to find a solution for a problem which has been bothering him for some time.

4.4.2022

Business Hall of Fame: Kiwi Entrepreneurs Honoured

The country’s richest man, an international fitness empire and an innovative race car driver are among this year’s laureates to the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.

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Media Kit

All news articles

The Easiest, Hard Decision I’ve Ever Made

"Take everything that comes your way with both hands" | Ryan Hooper-Smith

Alumni Awards 2023 Winners

YES Northland Trade Fair Celebrates and Empowers Young Entrepreneurs

YES Alumni Awards 2023 Finalists Announced!

Sleepless in Timaru: Toothpaste tablet aims to help with sleep

Waimea College students leading the way

Entrepreneur visits capital for workshop

"Life is too short to worry about what someone else thinks"

Young 'Entrepreneurs in Action' spend their weekend tackling real world business problems

YES changed the way I viewed the world

University of Otago student wins national tech award

Alumni Advisory Group 2023

Young Enterprise Alumni Awards Nominations Open!

Alumni Awards 2022 Winners

Students create mental health journal - because it matters

Horouta YES pair inspired by scholarship experiences

2023 Business Hall of Fame Laureates Announced

Information Shearing

Young Enterprise welcomes new Youth Representative to Board of Trustees

Student addressing the digital divide

NZ Māori Tourism head pledges $10k to Rotorua young enterprise's Raukura Rangatahi Fund

Otago students’ natural sun protection wins YES Company of the Year 2022

Young Enterprise students impress at Hawke's Bay Business Awards

Teenage artist creates playing cards to help young people in the Rainbow community

Manurewa High School students inspire with YES success

Young Timaru businesswomen's waste mask project makes it to national level

A business card made of wool? It's just the start for award-winning teenage twins

Otago Girls' trio named young enterprise champions

Tool to save houseplants named winner of Taranaki Young Enterprise Scheme Awards

Eco-friendly Toothpaste Tablets A Winner For SBHS Student

X marks the spot for Helicopter Golf Ball drop

Young Enterprise Helps People to be Better People

Christchurch Girls' High students start innovative business to tackle drink driving

Students say YES to business success

Addressing the financially illiterate elephant in the room

Pūkare Cards: Hawke's Bay students find nationwide success with te reo flash cards

YES product inspired by students experience

Head girl founds hijab firm

Young Enterprise welcomes 3 new prominent business leaders to their Board of Trustees

The high schoolers hoping to teach you about Matariki

Timaru Teens aim to turn discarded masks into planter boxes

Young entrepreneur honouring mum while raising funds for mental health

BizVenture Japan back for 2022 with new partner onboard

The tool created by two teenage boys that will keep your indoor plants alive

Taradale students' Pūkare Cards part of Young Enterprise Scheme

Students' motoring kit is all about preparing for the unprepared

Talented young Kiwis speak to the world at Expo 2020 Dubai

Pupil develops trampers’ toothpaste idea

Business Hall of Fame: Kiwi Entrepreneurs Honoured

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