About 10 young entrepreneurs from the Youth@Work’s Young Entrepreneurs Program (YEP) received grants from Youth@Work last Monday as part of the programs initiative to help young business men and women.
The grants awarding ceremony was graced with the presence of Mrs. Sue Kennedy, local entrepreneur and owner of the King Solomon Hotel and Gizo Hotel alongside Mia Rimon, SPC Country Manager.
Both women took time out to share with the young entrepreneurs their experiences and to give pointers on starting, managing and expanding various business endeavours.
During the awards ceremony, the young entrepreneurs were able to share their dreams of starting new businesses after receiving extensive training and small grants from the Youth@Work programme.
“To have such a successful individual such as Mrs. Kennedy come and listen to our ideas is a much appreciated opportunity, her presence alone pushes us to want to work hard and be successful in our own right,” said one Young entrepreneur, Mr Francis Buga.
The grants will help the 10 winners to upgrade and expand their existing businesses and will hope to inspire the hard working young people to persevere in their endeavours.
“I am very happy to have been awarded this grant, this is an opportunity for my business to go to another level and I am very grateful to Youth@Work for helping us young people achieve our goals,” said one of the 10 grant winners Jeffery Tafolehe.
“Youth@Work has created a platform where young entrepreneurs such as myself can realize the potential of our individual business’s and I am proud to have won an award today.”
The grant award is part of the business training that was organized and facilitated by Youth@Work in association with SISBEC and ILO.
Youth@Work is implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in partnership with the Ministry of National Unity, Peace and Reconciliation, the Ministry of Commerce, Industries, Labour and Immigration and the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs.
Youth@Work is an initiative to tackle youth unemployment in the Solomon Islands and is funded by Australian Aid.
