Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) is a registered charity which inspires and educates young people from all backgrounds through a range of enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes. In 2018, they launched the Circular Economy (CE) Challenge, a six-week programme working with primary schools throughout Glasgow to introduce young people to the circular economy.
The six-week programme begins with a visit to Young Enterprise Scotland’s site at Rouken Glen Park. YES live by the circular economy rules they teach and the site includes a bike recycling scheme, ship containers repurposed into classrooms, a greenhouse for their own food production and their own beehives.
Following this visit, throughout the rest of the programme, the young people work with YES and local circular economy businesses to come up with their own circular product or business model. After 6-weeks of hard work, the programme culminates in a dragon’s den style showcase where the young entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of experts.