Young Enterprise 2024

Last week, I attended and participated in a Dragon's Den style panel to launch the 2024 Young Enterprise (YE) Competition 2024 and am very pleased to announce that I have been asked to become a business advisor in next year's enterprise competition.

As corporate sponsors of the programme for many years, Hassans has been proud to both financially and practically support the project over the last decade, with many of the firm's lawyers, including Partners Richard Buttigieg, Tim Garcia and Andrew Montegriffo and Senior Associate David Montegriffo, having provided business and legal advice and acted as mentors to help guide the teams, which have also previously included current Hassans' employees (such as Jasmine Mahtani) to success. 

YE has been present in Gibraltar since 2007, the concept is based on the Junior Achievement programme in the US with Sir Walter Saloman bringing it to the UK and 1962. The aim of the programme is for participants to elevate their skills in areas which the classroom can't always provide: problem solving, team work, communication with clients, dealing with bureaucracy, designing a marketing campaign, taking initiative, self awareness and resilience. Student teams set up and run their own company over a period of 9 months, supported by an educator from their school and a volunteer from the business community. 

The ten teams this year are: 

• Amplified Marketing - Digital marketing services; social media / website creation / photography / videos. 
• Beyond the Bell -  a website where after school activities are shared. 
• Charitify – a website which includes all local charities at a click for donation purposes
• Connect - a children’s story book based on disabilities and inclusivity along with a website which allows the user to set their own objectives for their day and get discounts for local restaurants when they achieved their goals. 
• Employease – a website listing internships/training contracts, for graduates to seek experience. 
• Honeywix - Eco friendly bees wax candles.
• Multisportz – an app for individuals to connect to play sports (padel, squash, tennis, badminton etc). 
• Park it – an app for individuals with private parking to rent it out for a specified period of time. 
• Tiny Minds - Marley the Monkey, a story book focussed on the UN natural disasters list.
• Employease – a website listing internships/training contracts, for graduates to seek employment. 
• Vital - working on the concept of telling vital stories, aiming to educate children on essential sustainability and eco preservation topics. Their first product is a book on ocean pollution. 

The finals of the competition are being held on 16th May at Central Hall, Gibraltar.