our history

Young Enterprise has come a long way since we began in the early 60's.

1960s
Inspired by the American Junior Achievement programme, Sir Walter Salomon founds Young Enterprise in 1963. During that first year, 113 young people founded the first eight Young Enterprise companies in the UK.

1970s
By the early 1970s, Young Enterprise is expanding its pioneering Company Programme throughout the country. Then in 1977 the European Federation of Young Enterprise (renamed JA-YE Europe in 2002) is born, with ourselves, France and Belgium as founding members.

1980s
1981 sees the inaugural UK Young Enterprise Company Programme competition. Entrants from across the country compete to be crowned the Young Enterprise Company of the Year. Towards the end of the decade, meanwhile, Team Programme is launched to develop the same entrepreneurial opportunities for young people with learning disabilities.

1990s
As we continue to expand, Young Enterprise organisations are founded in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and 9 English Regions. Our classroom based programmes begin to reach out to younger students through enterprise and employability.

Today
Twelve of our regional organisations have combined to form a powerful single entity, with Scotland and Northern Ireland remaining separate, but closely associated, partners. Offering a range of enterprise programmes to young people between the ages of 4 and 25 years, Young Enterprise now inspires more than 250,000 students per year. This is only made possible through the support of 3,500 UK businesses, and our network of 5,000 Young Enterprise volunteers.