A NATIONAL Scottish charity has made staff redundant after failing to secure Scottish Government funding.
Young Enterprise Scotland, which has delivered enterprise education to schools and colleges for more than 30 years, said it would continue to do so with a “significantly reduced team”.
On Monday, the charity said that 17 of its staff had been made redundant.
In October, Young Enterprise Scotland had warned that it was facing closure after being denied funding from the Scottish Government, with as many as 31 jobs potentially lost.
The charity said its funding has “historically come from a combination of a core continuity grant from the Scottish Government, an ongoing pipeline of support from trusts and foundations and, to a lesser extent, support from the private sector”.
This year, it was told that the core continuity grant would end, to be replaced by a competitive process. Seven organisations were given a share of the Scottish Government’s new £850,000 Entrepreneurial Education Fund, but Young Enterprise Scotland was not among them.
The charity said it was instead granted emergency funding of £285,000 which covered its existing costs for this financial year, and allowed it to avoid closure.
Young Enterprise Scotland chief executive Emma Soanes said: “It is a huge relief that we have been able to avoid a complete closure of Young Enterprise Scotland and we are grateful to the Scottish Government for providing us with emergency funding which prevented our worst case scenario becoming reality.
“Sadly however, this will provide little consolation to the 17 valued members of our team who have lost their jobs just weeks before Christmas.
“Losing our major income source has been an enormously unsettling and upsetting time for everyone involved, and while we try to remain positive there is no doubt there will be challenging times ahead as we refocus and prioritise what programmes we deliver within schools and colleges on such a reduced staff model.”
Young Enterprise Scotland said it had supported more than 18,000 school and college students through its enterprise programmes in 2023.
It added that, in the past three years, more than 1000 students have gained a Young Enterprise Scotland enterprise qualification (SCQF Level 6) to prepare them for further education, work and life.
Soanes added: “We will definitely be engaging our own entrepreneurial mindsets in the coming weeks and months as we reposition ourselves within the education ecosystem and continue with our commitment to deliver financial and enterprise education from primary one and early years, right through to S6.”
