A youth charity which has been delivering business and enterprise education to schools and colleges for more than 30 years has reported facing closure following Scottish government cuts to its funding.
Young Enterprise Scotland, which has supported more than 18,000 school and college students around Scotland last year through its enterprise programmes, has issued all 31 of its staff with redundancy notices, with managers reportedly saying they are “absolutely devastated” that the charity’s future “now seems untenable”.
The redundancies come after Young Enterprise Scotland had five bids for grants rejected under the new funding model launched by Scottish economy secretary Kate Forbes this summer.
According to reports from the Scotsman last week, the youth charity blames the Scottish government’s failure to honour financial assurances as well as changes to funding methods that the charity relied upon.
Closure will lead to loss of ‘thousands of hours of practical learning’
Young Enterprise Scotland, which was founded in 1992, supports business and enterprise education across the country, and is best known for its flagship Company programme, in which 2,000 pupils from school years five and six take part each year, developing their own student company.
The charity told the Scotsman that its closure would result in the loss of thousands of hours of practical learning for primary and secondary students in the circular economy, teamwork, communication, financial planning, sales and marketing.
Young Enterprise Scotland chief executive Emma Soanes said: “We are absolutely devastated that the future of Young Enterprise Scotland now seems untenable with the loss of our major income source.
“Not only will this have a huge detrimental impact on our dedicated staff team, who now face redundancy, but given our extensive reach across Scotland it will also impact massively on the national education landscape and the education of young people in Scotland of which our work played such a crucial role.”
Government support delayed
Historically, the charity’s funding has come from a Scottish government grant, trust support, and some private funding, with government grants typically ranging from £450,000 to £550,000.
However, delays in funding for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years affected the charity’s ability to apply for additional support.
Despite ongoing preparations with educational institutions, the charity was informed in July that government grants would cease and be replaced with a competitive funding process, which ignored prior commitments and costs.
In August, a new fund was announced for innovative education projects, but all of the charity's five submitted bids were rejected, which ultimately placed it in danger of collapse.
The charity is now seeking emergency funding to survive, while the Scottish government reportedly maintains it communicated the shift to competitive funding in 2022.
The Scottish Government allegedly insists that Young Enterprise Scotland was first informed in 2022 that this year’s fund would be allocated through a competitive process, with an announcement about the successful applicants being made in the near future.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told the Scotsman: “This year’s round of funding through the Entrepreneurial Education Pathways Fund is being awarded on a competitive basis for the first time. This is in alignment with wider entrepreneurial funding.
“All applications were assessed fairly against the criteria of the fund. The Scottish government is currently in discussions with Young Enterprise Scotland.”
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