Several of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs will come together to share their ideas, expertise and success stories at a global summit to be held in the Capital later this month.
Power of Youth, based in Scotland’s Edinburgh, will host its third global summit from October 22 to 27, bringing around 30 of the world’s most prominent young businesspeople together.
The event will provide a platform for emerging Scottish entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses and test and push their commercial thinking among a global network of peers.
External Affairs Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, met with some of the young entrepreneurs who will participate and announced £5,500 of funding towards the summit. The funding is the latest in a series of actions that the Scottish government has taken to encourage youth entrepreneurship.
Earlier this year, the government supported a project that connected around 20 young Scottish entrepreneurs to Power of Youth’s global network and gave them access to support and advice from a range of prominent and successful business leaders.
The government also helped Young Enterprise Scotland and City of Glasgow College to launch the “Bridge 2 Business” scheme, which will support college students to build business networks and develop their enterprising capabilities.
Arif Shafi and Humeera Qayoom, young entrepreneurs from Kashmir, have received support to set up sustainable small enterprises through the Scottish government’s South Asia International Development Fund. They received support from the Start-Up Kashmir Youth Entrepreneur (SKYE) Development Project administered by Mercy Corps. The project addressed barriers impeding youth entrepreneurship in Kashmir, focusing on awareness-raising, skills building and mentoring and providing access to finance to enable young people to lever private and government support. The project was allocated £400,000 from the Scottish government between 2010 and 2013 with over 6,000 young people in Kashmir taking part and 170 new businesses set up through the project, creating job opportunities for 600 people.
Mr. Yousaf said: “Power of Youth is an inspiring and influential network engaging some of the brightest and most innovative minds around the world, many from or with strong links to Scotland. I am very excited to see what comes from next week’s summit…Our new generation of entrepreneurs will devise the ideas and products of the future and we want to ensure that the Scottish business men and women of the future can benefit from access to world-class mentorship and role models.”
According to Director of Power of Youth, Adam Purvis, “Leaders and role models set the tone for generations. Power of Youth was set up to identify authentic entrepreneurial role models that the next generation can relate to. By working with partners like the Scottish government we are helping young people to succeed and to share their energy with other young people all over the world.”
