Young Entrepreneurs Project (YEP)

Profile

KAPE and PACT began implementing the WE-Act Project in New Generation School sites in October 2020. The project focuses on promoting entrepreneurship among youth within a secondary education setting, especially for girls and young women. In this respect, WE-Act focuses on promoting urban-based micro, small and medium businesses owned by young women, ages 18 to 30. The project’s focus on girls and young women in urban and semi-urban areas fits well with New Generation School programming, which tends to be located in urban locations and in the suburbs of large towns and cities. WE-Act works to address key challenges faced by small businesses through capacity development, network expansion, information sharing, access to finance and markets and more. In partnership with existing actors in the entrepreneur system, WE-Act actively provides access to good role models to promote entrepreneurship. The project also works to reduce economic gender barriers in Cambodia and stimulate the participation of young girls and women in decision-making processes at all levels.

 

Main Goal 

To empower young people, especially girls and young women within a secondary school education setting, through skills acquisition programs that focus on entrepreneurship and leadership.

Objective 1: To cultivate an entrepreneurship mindset and corresponding attitudes for young women and youth at high schools, so that they can prepare themselves for their future careers, whether to start their own businesses or to work for others.

Objective 2: To engage young women and youth as active citizens to participate in addressing issues that influence their lives and futures as these relate to socio-economic rights, especially with respect to educational quality that will prepare them for the modern working place.

 

Key Activities

The YEP Project has six Key Activities including the following:

1. Developing and implementing Youth Entrepreneurship Clubs.
2. Organizing Entrepreneurial Simulations that will enable students to have an actual experience in setting up a small business.
3. Implementing Aspiring Entrepreneurial Training Workshops that provide entrepreneurial training to 25 to 30 students. course prepares aspiring entrepreneurs to generate business ideas in their community, do SWOT analyses on their business ideas that build on their existing skills and resources, and how to do marketing. The series of workshops planned will prepare participants to build entrepreneurship skills and know-how.
4. Organizing Action Research on Gender Barriers in which YEP will work with a small group of female students in Grade 10 to conduct Action Research on the obstacles faced by women in starting and/or running a small business.
5. Organizing Student-Teacher Forums in which YEP works with the Student Council at Prek Leap HS to organize a space for students to raise issues around their study that lead to a dialogue with teachers and other school stakeholders about ways to improve the educational environment at the school.
6. Supporting Foundational Life Skills linked with Entrepreneurial Thinking in which YEP will organize advocacy with the school to provide life skills courses in economic and business skills using course materials that were earlier developed by the Improved Basic Education in Cambodia Project (funded by USAID) and since adopted by MoEYS.

 

Target Group

Young Women and Girls enrolled in secondary school

 

Target Areas

Phnom Penh (Prek Leap High School)

 

Start Date

15 October 2020

 

End Date

14 October 2021

 

Supported by

USAID through PACT