Our History
A look back over the last 60 years...
1960’s - Sir Walter Salomon founded Young Enterprise in 1962. It was based on the successful Junior Achievement programme in America. He admired the US charity’s ability to foster work readiness, entrepreneurship, financial literacy skills, and its philosophy of “learning by doing”. The first UK Company Programme was launched in 1963 in Kent and it attracted 113 teenagers who formed eight student firms.
1970’s - In a great leap forward, twenty-two Young Enterprise Area Boards of volunteers started up across the UK in 1973. They created Young Enterprise Centres in disused warehouses and factories, a church building and even a pub.
1980’s - With backing from giants such as Mobil Oil, the Young Enterprise Company Competition had, by 1981, started taking the exciting format it has today. Six regional winners attended national finals in London with the Best Company receiving £1,500 in cash. Sir Walter Salomon received a Knighthood from The Queen in 1982, recognising his achievement.
1990’s - As student numbers hit a new peak of 24,000, the Department of Trade and Industry joined Midland Bank (now HSBC) in 1997 to support the UK finals of the Young Enterprise Company Competition. The Salomon family donated two Founder’s Awards in memory of Sir Walter.
2000’s - We marked the millennium by mounting more than 1,000 stands at Young Enterprise trade fairs on the same weekend throughout the UK. In 2001, the number of businesses supporting Young Enterprise hit 2,000 and we launched the Primary Programme for 4 to 12 year olds. Young Enterprise reached more than 105,000 young people a year in 2002, an astonishing 40% annual growth. In 2005, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced Young Enterprise would lead the Government’s new Pathfinder Enterprise Summer Schools.
2010’s - Young Enterprise’s pioneering Start-Up programme, in which university students launch their own business, booms as the economic downturn triggers a surge towards graduate self-employment. In the Spring of 2013, Young Enterprise launched the Tenner Challenge, a competition that challenges secondary school students to take ten pounds, to do something enterprising, make a difference and give back. The following year, Young Enterprise launched the primary school version, the Fiver Challenge.
2020’s and beyond
In 2023, we celebrated 60 years of transforming young people’s futures, including a massive 7.2 million young people who had engaged in our enterprise and financial education programmes and services since 1963. In 2024, we launched our Transforming Futures strategy, which focuses on making opportunities accessible to those facing the greatest challenges. By measuring impact and learning as we go, we’re helping to create a fairer system—one that values enterprise and financial education, supports social mobility and helps all young people to thrive. Find out more about Transforming Futures.
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