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South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

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Make Your Mark campaign: helping young people to make their ideas happen

The national Make Your Mark campaign aims to create an enterprise culture among young people in the UK. It campaigns to give people in their teens and twenties the inspiration and opportunity to turn their ideas into reality, whether through starting businesses or social enterprises or by making an idea happen at work.

Make Your Mark was set up in 2004 by the four main UK business organisations – the British Chamber of Commerce, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses and Institute of Directors.

SEEDA sits alongside 24 other partners on the campaign’s coalition, and represents all the UK’s regional development agencies. It also co-ordinates all Make Your Mark activity across the South East, encouraging backing for the campaign from public, private and academic partners throughout the region as well as managing all Enterprise Week activity.

There are already lots of young people involved in entrepreneurial activities in the South East. For example, Stafford Carrington, 27, from Reading, who set up IT recruitment company, Impact Group, which is now turning over £1 million and Robert Wilson from Kent, whose charity, Read International, gathers books, computers, sports and lab equipment and other educational resources, which are then redistributed to regions in Tanzania. We hope that their stories, and others like them, will inspire others to turn their ideas into reality.

The campaign runs year-round, but there is an intense focus during Enterprise Week, which this year takes place from 12-18 November. Businesses, charities, schools and colleges all across the region will be holding events and activities which celebrate enterprise in all its forms.

Highlights this year include:

12 November: The third national Make Your Mark Challenge, the UK’s largest live enterprise competition which over 1,600 people from the South East took part in last year
14 November: Women’s Enterprise Day. Celebrating successful businesses owned and run by women, to encourage others to take the plunge
15 November: Social Enterprise Day. A chance for young people across the UK to learn more about how they can use their ideas to make money but also benefit their communities or the environment
Throughout the week: Make Your Mark at Work. A focus on encouraging ideas in the workplace, with businesses of all sizes showcasing initiatives and running special activities

Last year’s Enterprise Week saw over 448,000 people taking part in 3,184 events nationwide – 44% more than the previous year. Over 300 of these events took place in the South East and this year aims to be even bigger.

If you are interested in getting involved in Enterprise Week or the Make Your Mark campaign in the South East please contact Youth Enterprise Manager, Clare Williams, on 01483 500719 or clarewilliams@seeda.co.uk

The Mark Autumn 2007 The Mark - Autumn 2007