Young Entrepreneurs Business Week (YEBW) provides high school students with the safe environment to learn some of life's major lessons without the risk! Since 1993, the last year Oregon Business Week operated, the State of Oregon has been lacking an extracurricular comprehensive summer program designed to teach the basics of business, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and goal setting. There are over 20 successful business weeks nation wide having developed extremely successful models, each of which has had thousands of participants. "We see the effects of what happens when people aren"t financially knowledgeable coming out of high school and college. We see the importance of getting to students when they"re younger." �Danielle Brown of the Credit Union Association of Oregon ('Oregon is Failing at Teaching Finances,' Oregonian, 2007) While students learn most of their money management skills at the kitchen table, surveys also showed that an overwhelming majority of parents would like additional support in this effort.
According to the JumpStart Coalition for Financial Literacy 2008
- Some 70% of parents surveyed said their child has not had any formal training in money management, either in school or outside the home.
- 76% surveyed said their high school student does not have a budget.
- 88% feel it's important to monitor their child's spending and guide their money use.
- 76% said that schools should be required to teach money management skills.
The National Council on Economic Education's 2007 survey of the states found that, "states have not made enough progress on their commitment to offer or require financial/economic education in school. Consequently, the majority of students aren't receiving the essential real-life economic skills they need to become knowledgeable consumers, prudent savers and investors, and productive members of the workforce." In addition, among those ages 18 to 24 there has been a 96 percent rise in bankruptcies in the past decade and over half the high school students who took a national quiz on practical financial skills flunked it.
YEBW fulfills a gap in the lack of financial education that exists in Oregon's schools, while helping students gain mandatory career related credits. Students leave our program with practical skills that help prepare them for the future, leadership, goal-setting, accounting, marketing and finance. Students also learn about personal financial statements, the basics of investing, saving and the importance of credit. Young Entrepreneurs Business Week is an outrageously fun and educational experience for students and a solution to support your efforts in providing the best opportunities for your student.
"Nick shared with us that this was the best camp he's ever participated in! From the business simulation experience of running a company throughout the week and experiencing the impact of making decisions on the business' bottom line, to learning about profit/loss statements and investments, to making presentations, to setting goals ...well the list goes on and on and it all was incredibly positive. Nick said that he learned so much from the speakers! He shared with us how much he loved being the Chief Marketing Officer for Company A, so much so that it's given him insights into future college pursuits and started him thinking about how he can blend an engineering degree with owning and operating a business. At 17 years old, I didn't have this clarity!" - Cindy Devich, PGE, Parent of 2006 Participant