AS society grows, more and more persons are embarking on developing their own entrepreneurship.
Over the past three to four years, the Small Business Bureau (SBB) has been helping and guiding students from various schools across the country to develop their own business enterprises.
To this end, the In-School Entrepreneurship Programme was launched back in September 2017, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education by the Small Business Bureau.

Coordinator of the programme Shermaine Headley, during an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, made mention of the fact that the programme aims to provide support for less fortunate students who have a business idea as well as students who are developing a business.
“Part of our mandate is to implement programmes which foster the development of growth of small businesses in Guyana, so we create the inter-school entrepreneurship programme to provide support to less fortunate students and particularly to students doing objects that can be transformed into a business activity, but also to promote the idea of entrepreneurship,” the coordinator told Pepperpot Magazine.

The success of the programme has been seen in a number of ways, since its launch.
The Small Business Bureau has been able to work with over 200 students from schools across the 10 administrative regions, thus showing the correlation between their subjects and using the teaching to garner incomes or to start a businesses of their own.

“We have been able to instill the entrepreneurial mindset within them; we were also able to foster a business concept within their communities because their parents and others are the beneficiaries of the training,” Headley told the Magazine.
According to the Coordinator, the Ministry of Education was responsible for selecting the students for the programme as well as the schools who would participate in the programme organised by the Small Business Bureau (SBB).

Regarding the criteria set out for the participation of students in this programme, Headley pointed out that each year, based on budgetary allocations, the Small Business Bureau can safely determine and assess the needs of the students.
“Each year, we have based on our budgetary allocations, the number of students that we can support, or the number of schools we can support. Hence, we determine that we worked in all 10 regions,” the coordinator told the magazine.

The hinterland communities schools showed the greatest interest and participation in programmes designed to aid in the development of business enterprises.
According to a post that appeared on the Small Business Bureau’s Facebook page, the programme initially targeted 100 students from 15 secondary schools, who benefited from entrepreneurial discussion sessions and a grant of $30,000 each.

In 2018, the programme was expanded to 25 secondary schools and approximately 165 students. As a result of the support and mentorship provided by the Small Business Bureau, viable businesses were created, and students were able to link academic programmes to real-life career choices, particularly in the field of entrepreneurship.

These sessions are geared towards encouraging youth to develop innovative businesses, as well as utilise available networks and linkages to achieve business goals. The target audience for these sessions consists of fourth and fifth form students from participating secondary schools.