As part of it’s ongoing support of programmes that help develop the ‘Future Skills’ of Bermuda’s young people, HSBC Bermuda has partnered up with the Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative (YEI) for their Lemonade Day, which will take place on Friday 17 May from 9am until 4pm.
The Lemonade stands will be manned by students from Dellwood, Clearwater, Sandys, T.N. Tatum and Whitney Middle Schools and will be located at various HSBC branches and RUBiS Stations Island-wide. Bermuda residents are encouraged to come out and support these students and HSBC staff volunteers will be helping them throughout the day.
The YEI recently partnered with the Department of Education and members of Bermuda’s business community to form the Youth Business-education Initiative (YBeI). It’s objective is to revamp the enterprise education curriculum in government schools. Allowing Middle school students to run their lemonade stand business model is a practical part of this curriculum for the Year 7 students who are aged 11 and 12. All the profits will go into a venture fund, which will be used to support other student businesses.
“The mission of Lemonade Day is to help prepare young people for life through fun, proactive and experiential programmes infused with life skills, character education and entrepreneurship,” says Joe Mahoney, Executive Director of YEI. “The foremost objective is to help today’s youth become the business leaders, social advocates, community volunteers and forward-thinking citizens of tomorrow. We want to build self-esteem and new mindsets that can propel them to success they likely would not have pursued otherwise.”
Explaining why HSBC chose to support this initiative, Cyril Whitter, HSBC Senior Business Analyst and YEI Partnership Sponsor, says: “The YBeI partnership strengthens financial capabilities, employability and entrepreneurialism, which all help the students involved develop the essential skills they will need in later life. This premise is at the heart of HSBC’s community investment strategy.
“Lemonade Day provides students with practical first-hand experience on how to create a business plan and run their own businesses successfully,” he continues. “The refinement of business skills in young people leads to growth in leadership abilities, teaching them to take the initiative for change in their own lives and societies that they know.”
Also supporting Lemonade Day is RUBiS Energy Bermuda Ltd. who is the Host Country Sponsor. “Entrepreneurship has a tremendous impact on the economic development of a country, and all over the world there is increasing attention on encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation as a way to encourage economic sustainability,” says Managing Director, Graham Redford.
“Entrepreneurship education also benefits students from all socioeconomic backgrounds because it teaches children to think a little differently and nurtures unconventional talents and skills. Lemonade Day is a great opportunity for our youth to learn valuable life and critical decision-making and leadership skills in a safe, structured and fun team environment.
“I would like to say to the residents of Bermuda: ‘please visit one of the Lemonade Day stands on May 17th and support all of our future entrepreneurs and leaders’.”
In addition to HSBC and RUBiS, other YBeI partners include the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation and Ignite Bermuda.
The YBeI curriculum has been developed into 15 hour-long modules and each will address a specific set of learning objectives as outlined in the mapping requirements of the Cambridge Curriculum. Each module will have a certificate of achievement.
Students currently participating in this programme are in middle school years 7, 8 and 9. The curriculum has an online component and each module offers an internship project, for which the student must complete a real-world experience project such as marketing research, consumer surveys or on-the-job internships.
Each school has one “business essentials” teacher per middle school and the YEI staff provides advice, teacher support and assessment to document evidence-based quality improvement. The YEI also provides ongoing technical support to educators and school staff through a network of volunteer mentors from the Bermuda business community.
The YEI of Bermuda is a not-for-profit organisation, which brings best practice enterprise education and youth development programmes to Bermuda. Its mission is to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among the youth of Bermuda and identifies and secures the resources necessary to provide entrepreneurial training and support for young Bermudians.
Lemonade Day was first launched in Houston, Texas in 2007. It is a school-based programme that takes students from an idea to a business plan and teaches them the principles needed to start a company. Students are taught to spend some, save some and share some by giving back to their community.
Lemonade Stands will be operating at the following locations between 9am – 4pm on Friday 17 May:
HSBC Bank Bermuda, Harbourview Centre, 37 Front Street
HSBC Bank Bermuda, 64 Church Street
RUBiS St. John’s Road Service Station, 61 St. John’s Road, Pembroke
HSBC Bank of Bermuda, 4 King’s Square, St. George’s
RUBiS Causeway Service Station, 15 Blue Hole Hill, Hamilton Parish
RUBiS Boaz Island Marine Service Station, 28 Malabar Road, Somerset
The Marketplace, Somerset Village
RUBiS Warwick Gas Station, 72 South Road, Warwick
RUBiS Terceira’s North Shore, 2 North Shore Road, Smith’s
