Gerry McQuillan

Gerry McQuillan

25 YEARS WITH YOUNG ENTERPRISE
 
A circular from Warrington Chamber of Commerce asking for volunteers to advise Young Enterprise companies was my first introduction to Young Enterprise (YE) 25 years ago.
 
It was the early days of YE in Warrington.  I was put with a young lady from one of the banks who had been involved with YE in another area.
 
In those days it was recommended that we were only there to advise, not supervise and to let the achievers get on with it and learn from their mistakes.  It was also recommended that we met away from the school environment, so we hired a room in a Church Hall.  This only lasted a few weeks because the company was rapidly running out of money to pay the rent.  We ended up in a classroom at the school.  Teachers were not involved in those early days as it was on “out of school activity”.
 
How things have changed! In those days nobody had access to computers.  Final reports were hand written – or typed if you were lucky!  Final presentations were in the UKAEA canteen with parents and teachers invited.  The audience was usually about 300.  We had 10 to 14 companies participating  in Warrington.
 
As the years have gone by, YE had a much higher profile, Lower 6th formers were keen to participate with several companies in one school.
 
One company I advised organised a balloon race, sold lots of tickets and persuaded a celebrated footballer to release the balloons, the whole school turned out to watch.....Yes!  Time off lessons!  The event was a success in one way creating a lot of interest in YE, but the costings were all wrong and the company gave away more money in prizes than they took in ticket money, another useful lesson learned by the achievers.  If I remember correctly the winning balloon made it the Isle of Wight.
 
After a few years advising, I was invited to join the Warrington Area Board and found this most interesting.  I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in YE.  You learn a lot more about the working and organisation of YE apart from just advising.
 
YE has changed and evolved over the years and achievers are much more sophisticated in their approach.  The use of computers have changed  Final Reports and Final Presentations, but the basics of running your own company, learning by doing and experiencing the ups and downs of  the business world has not changed.  In my opinion, it is still a very worth while thing to do, both from the achievers point of view and the satisfaction, from the advisors point of view, of seeing young people develop into young adults gaining in confidence and experience, which stands then in good stead after they leave school.
 
I have a very happy memory of a young lady coming up to me while I was shaking my tin collecting for Rotory outside a local supermarket one Christmas and saying “Hello Gerry, do you remember me from YE? I want to thank you, YE helped me to find my current job.  It was so worth while.”
 
YE seems to be entering a difficult period, but I do hope that the Company Programme will continue to go forward preparing young people for the life after school.

Gerry McQuillan