Young Enterprise Scotland risks facing closure as the Scottish Government has neglected to continue funding for the national charity.

YE Scotland, which has delivered enterprise education to schools and colleges for over 30 years, has lost its Scottish government grant which accounted for the majority of its income.

Without the grant, the organisation will be forced to shut its doors if it fails to acquire emergency funding.

Up to 31 jobs may be lost as a result of the closure, and students would be unable to complete their SCQF Level 6 qualification ‘higher’ in entrepreneurship.

In the past year, YE Scotland supported more than 18,000 school and college students through its enterprise programmes. These include the Company Programme, which YE Scotland says many entrepreneurs credit with setting them on a business career trajectory.

More than 1,000 students have gained a YE Scotland enterprise qualification in just the past three years.

“We are absolutely devastated that the future of Young Enterprise Scotland now seems untenable, with the loss of our major income source,” chief executive of YE Scotland, Emma Soanes, said.

“Not only will this have a huge detrimental impact on our dedicated staff team, who now face redundancy, but given our extensive reach across Scotland, it will also impact massively on the national education landscape and the education of young people in Scotland of which our work played such a crucial role.

“Failing to support this crucial stage of the entrepreneurial pipeline is entirely at odds with strategic priorities reflected in the government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation and the key recommendations of the Entrepreneurial Campus report.”

Historically, YE Scotland’s funding has come from a combination of a Scottish Government core continuity grant, ongoing support from a pipeline of trusts and foundations, and some private sector support.

However, the two financial years saw government funding significantly delayed, with the 2023/2024 delay resulting in a late submission of the charity’s audited accounts, which impacted its ability to apply to additional funding.

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The charity had relied on its longstanding relationship with the Scottish Government, as well as previous communications about available funding, to move ahead with onboarding around 80% of the schools and colleges it expected to work with in the coming year.

In July of this year, however, YE Scotland was informed that the grant process would cease and be replaced with a competitive process – The Entrepreneurial Education Fund – which opened in August.

“For over 30 years, Young Enterprise has delivered life-changing opportunities for young people in Scotland, myself included,” Andy Campbell, founder of the Scottish Space Network and YE Scotland chair, said.

“We understand that government budgets can face challenges and delays, particularly in the current climate – as a committed partner, the charity has historically supported the government’s delays in funding, continuing delivery to ensure our young people’s futures are not impacted.

“Historically, these delays were always addressed, with costs settled and accompanied by thanks and apologies, but despite this constructive commitment, it now appears that future funding is to be withdrawn – which we can manage, albeit as a vastly smaller organisation and not delivering the vast majority of our current activity.

“Critically, it now seems that our historical outlays will remain unsettled putting the entire organisation at risk of closure.

“Without emergency funding, the charity will be in a precarious situation, one that could have been avoided – we are ready to engage with Ministers and officers, hopeful that our past support will be reciprocated.”