Not Just a Great Youth Enterprise Programme

youth etnerprise - socent

Some NJaTC activities

We have been running our ethical youth enterprise programme for four years now – the last three years through our social enterprise Not Just a Trading Company.

So far, we have supported almost 200 young people, older people and unemployed people through our local enterprise groups and workshop programmes. They have gained invaluable business skills, and experience; between them, have created all of the quality fair trade products that now make up our branded range; they have earned thousands of pounds for their groups, won awards for their work and many have gone on to employment, self employment, further education, and one group even created their own community co-operative.

We are now running and supporting groups in Manchester, Oldham, Doncaster, Rotherham and London. We are working with a wide range of partners and organisations that are sponsoring and supporting local groups, including councils, youth development organisations and housing associations.

Two of our latest groups are running in Rochdale (with Rochdale Boroughwide Housing) and in Wakefield (with Youthworks); we thought we tell you about the impact the programme has had, through the words of two of the youth workers from our local partners RBH and YouthWorks:

“The young people involved are really enthusiastic about this project: some because they are passionate about the fair trade movement, others because they would like do their bit towards fundraising for a skate park locally.”

“The Rochdale group formed in April 2013 and they have bonded really well as a team and learnt a lot from becoming a group with different backgrounds…” 

“The ideas they have come up with have been inspiring, they have been able to use the skills they have learnt to work as a team to enable other organisations to see them as a serious business for them to invest in.”

“I have asked other staff from the housing association to talk to the group in the New Year about ‘business planning’ and ‘profit margins’.”

“I have absolutely enjoyed working with this group and hope what they have achieved from the ‘Not Just A Little Business’ will help them to gain their dream job in the future. They are full of ideas and hopefully they will be able to teach other young people from their experiences of this group.”

If you want to talk to us about our youth and community enterprise programmes, workshops and courses, we would love to hear from you; get in touch.

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