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YESL
– Investing in the future of the country through the
young
By
Nizla Naizer
Groundbreaking entrepreneur and industrialist Patrick Amarasinghe
has a vision for the future of Sri Lanka. He believes that
investing in the future of our children now will result in
the development of our country. Keeping that in mind, he began
the Young Entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka (YESL) Programme, which
is a member-nation franchise of Junior Achievement (JA) based
in the USA.
Inspiration
JA, founded in 1919 and present in 120 countries, is the world’s
largest and fastest growing organisation dedicated to grooming
and educating children on practical business, economics and
entrepreneurial education and YESL follows the same structure.
YESL’s main objective is to make the children of today
workforce-ready and give them practical experience on how
to make money and manage money.
YESL started in 1998 as a non-profit and non political organisation
with approval from the Ministry of Education. It started off
with 9 schools around the island, but now covers 460. The
programmes are offered free to the school children.
“There are students from the ages of five to eighteen,
whom we train under this programme,” Amarasinghe explained.
“From the elementary to middle school to upper school,
we train them in various stages.”
The YESL programme has not limited itself to the urban areas
but as of now has over 70 companies represented from schools
across the island. From Galle to Badulla to Hambantota, this
programme has swept across the island giving close to 40,000
students the training and the knowledge required to be an
entrepreneur.
“A highlight of this programme is to promote the students’
confidence in communication and English and to give them the
much needed self-confidence to take an initiative in business,”
he said.
The Company Programme
For the upper school students, YESL offers the unique Company
Programme, where the students have to form groups and create
their own companies where they will have to trade in a product
or service. “They set up a company and become shareholders,”
Amarasinghe informed, “They decide on a name, a logo
and appoint a Board of Directors. One member would be President
while the others have to be in charge of the functions, Director
of Marketing, Finance, Production and so on.”
The YESL functions like the real life version of the Registrar
of Companies. The school companies must present their business
plans and articles of association to the YESL and they will
then go through the documents and give them a Certificate
of Incorporation, or, the Charter to start their business.
“It gives the students very valuable practical experience
on how a business is conducted,” Amarasinghe stated,
“They have to open and operate a bank account and after
the ten month period, we help them liquidate the company.
During this period they have to declare dividends and earn
profits from operations.”
The Young Entrepreneurs Awards
Each year, YESL celebrates the success of their programme
with the Young Entrepreneurs Award. This year, it is due to
be held at the BMICH on November 17, and will felicitate the
young achievers with awards such as, Best Business Brand,
Best Annual Report, Best President, and Best Director for
Finance/Marketing/Production and Best Outstanding Boy/Girl
Entrepreneur.
The awards will be coinciding with an exhibition of the products
and services of the various school companies at the BMICH.
“This year, we will be selecting the best entrepreneurs
and the various categories on a regional basis and then bring
them down to Colombo for the final awards.” Amarasinghe
explained. “Usually we get all the entrepreneurs of the
school companies, around 500 students or so and give them
a day of training here in Colombo, but with the situation
in the country, there is restriction on the movement of children.”
Funding Constraints
“It costs Rs. 5,000 to fund each student for a year in
the YESL programme,” Amarasinghe stated, “And even
though we obtain a lot of our funding from the USA, this has
been decreasing so we now need the help of the private sector
in Sri Lanka.”
The private sector benefits from this programme, as the students
they sponsor learn and patronise their products, he pointed
out adding that it’ll be beneficial to everyone as a
whole, to have a socially responsible and capable group of
students entering the workforce.
“This is our biggest task,” he said, “We need
to find local parties ready to assist us and volunteer in
this programme. We already have our in-house staff of teachers
and volunteers in every region who go to the schools and train
the students, but the private sector and the public can help
out too, helping us cut down on costs. We import the education
material from the USA and everything is provided free to the
students.”
“Children today are our biggest assets,” he adds
with a warning that, “If not taken care of, they can
also turn out to be our biggest threat as, dissatisfaction
when there are no opportunities, leads to conflict.”
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