THE Penang Youth Development Corporation’s (PYDC) Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC) is back, and it gets bigger this year as the challenge goes national level.
State Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee said the ‘YEC 4.0 National Level 2023’ will have two categories – an Open category and a new category called the ‘High School’ category.
“We want to train more high school students about entrepreneurial skills. And the ‘High School’ category’ is open to students aged 15 to 17.
“The ‘Open Category’ is open to youths between 18 and 35 years old,” Soon said at a press conference today held at PYDC’s Penang Youth Space in Jalan Ahmad Nor.
He also added that last year, a total of 44 teams participated in the YEC. When the programme started in 2020, it attracted 19 teams and the following year, it increased to 40 teams.
Soon also said that the competition and workshop will take place for several months until September, whereby throughout the period, the participants will have the opportunity to attend training and mentoring sessions, and network with industry leaders.
“Our YEC 2023 training workshops and mentoring sessions will cover a wide range of entrepreneurial topics, including business planning, marketing, finance, and legal lessons in the field of entrepreneurship to name a few.
“The final pitching session will take place on Sept 2, where the top 10 finalists will present their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win grand prizes,” he added.
The competition is organised by PYDC in collaboration with the Malay Businessmen and Industrialists Association of Malaysia (PERDASAMA), Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Section (PCCC YES), Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI), and Persatuan Usahawan Maju Malaysia (PUMM).
Meanwhile, PYDC general manager Dr Gwee Sai Ling said that several YEC participants have already started selling their products.
“What is more significant is that some of our YEC participants have already embarked on their entrepreneurial journey.
“For instance, from YEC 3.0 in 2022, our champions, MBall, have already embarked on building up their business and have now entered the markets.
“They have also participated in some expos in Singapore,” Gwee said.
She also shared that another group PETION, (former participants) now sells pet accessories and their products can be found in Mydin Supermarket.
“Thank you Mydin for being one of our sponsors throughout the years.
“This is indeed a remarkable achievement and I believe there will be more of our participants who will follow suit in further growing their entrepreneurial capacity.
“We are also grateful to have full support from the Ministry of Education (MoE) so that we can reach out to state Education Departments in Malaysia to encourage the participation for High School category,” she added.
Registration starts today (March 23) and is until May 7.
For further information about YEC 2023, do contact Ms. Samantha Tang, Senior Programme Executive, at +6014-9016968 or via email at [email protected].
Below is the information on the criteria for each category:-
High School Category:
• Students from Form 3 to Form 6, Pre-U, A-Level, Matriculation
• Youth aged 15 and above, born in Malaysia
• Full-time student
• All participants are required to get a supporting letter from the schools
• Registration to be done by respective schools
• Each team must be representing their own schools
• No registration fees
Open Category
• Youth aged 18 to 35
• Youth who are born in Malaysia
• Foreign students (non-Malaysian) are required to get a supporting letter from
respective college/university
• Registration fee – RM100 per team
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud