14 years of nurturing minds and developing future SA leaders

2018 marks the 14th anniversary of the Youth Leadership & Entrepreneurship Programme known (YLED). YLED since its inception has been implementing Saturday school model which focused on imparting life, leadership and entrepreneurship skills amongst school youth.

YLED Programme has not only fused on life and entrepreneurship skills but it has also managed to expose the next generation of leaders to corporate spaces, mentorship and given them practical tools which have proven to be important and effective in their lives 4 to 8 years after attending our programmes.

This award-winning programme will leave no stone unturned in its quest to ensure that the grade 11s that come from all walks of life are challenged, empowered and are given back their confidence to navigate life head-on.

YLED help develop young graduates to:

It is 100 years since the birth of the anti apartheid stalwart, Nelson Mandela, who offered an opportunity to the founder of YLED to pursue a postgraduate degree in the UK through the Nelson Mandela Scholarship.

Upon completing his studies through the Nelson Mandela Scholarship, the founder of YLED, Steven Zwane came back more committed to driving social change by improving the programme and the impact it has on society at large.

To commemorate this Global ICON’s centenary and the impact he has had on the programme, the 2018 Programme theme is based on one of Nelson Mandela’s famous quotes “Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation. Let your greatness blossom.” – Nelson Mandela.

This year’s programme will be filled with new exciting activities with a special focus on youth advancement. Participants will be part of the free and mobile generation that will seek to make a great impact in the communities that they come from.

YLED’s Presidential Run-Off

A few weeks back YLED’s Youth Self-Leadership (YSL) Top 12 Learners were selected. In this process the learners are divided into Presidential Candidates and their Running Mates, were they compete for their YSL Top 3 Spot to become General Managers of the three companies yet to be established. They had two weeks to prepare their campaigns and they had to go on social media, send Whats App messages and so many other thrilling ways to get votes! The day arrived, the Presidential candidates and their running mates were ready, the environment was tense and it was all systems go! We saw them pitching their incredibly compelling campaigns and the best Presidential Candidates won.

YLED’s Youth Self Leadership Top 3 Leaders

• Mary Bhila
• Tsebo Ramonyalioa
• Yusra Tayob

YLED’s Partnership with Gauteng Government

In the journey of commemorating the #42nd Anniversary of the June 16 1976 march, YLED a youth-led movement advocating for life and entrepreneurial skills of young people, partnered with the Gauteng Government to play a critical role in ensuring that the youth of the Gauteng Province are engaged in the events that took place during youth month. Moreover, we ensured that the youth understands the importance of commemorating youth month and enabling the youth to be aware of the various opportunities out there that they can leverage from.

Great Generation

On 17 June 2018, YLED NPO delivered dialogues that focused on remembering Nelson Mandela and empowering the youth of South Africa to become a #GREATGENERATION. We engaged in three topics.

YLED’s Youth Self Leadership Top 3 Leaders

The awards recognise the achievements and success stories of organisations, enterprises and individuals that are actively demonstrating alignment to the government’s Nine-Point Plan to boost economic growth and achieve the milestones set by the National Development Plan (NDP). The overwhelming number of nominations for the various categories of the awards casts a positive glow on the future of South Africa, and showcases the commitment of both the public and private sector to the NDP. YLED had a double Burrell of nominations with Steven Zwane Chairperson of YLED and Faith Moeletsane for the Drivers of Change Category, setting YLED as one of the leading organizations who are driving the National Development Plan Agenda and taking them country forward.

To that end, on the 14th anniversary of the YLED Programme and 100th year of Nelson Mandela, we’re letting the greatness of this year’s cohort blossom #YLEDGreatGen.

The socio-economic impact created by the existence of the YLED Programme with support from various change agents resonates with the theme ’14 years of letting greatness blossom’.

These are some of the success stories of the YLED programme:

To-date more than 15 000 learners from over 100 high schools in Gauteng, Limpopo, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have benefitted from YLED’s efforts. 14 years of transforming and impacting the future of young lives.