An introduction to your role and responsibilities

The objectives of a Business Adviser (BA) are to help develop the potential of the young people they work with and to help them run a successful student company, reflect and learn from the experience.

Your role as a Developer
Research shows that career success is not just about what you know (employability skills) but also who you know. The opportunity to connect and interact with potential employers is crucial for young people as it provides them with an opportunity to learn about the realities of the world of work. By taking on the role of a Developer, both Business Advisers (BAs) and Centre Leads (CLs) can support young people in a number of different ways including being  a Navigator, an Inspirer, a Connector and a Champion. Your role as a Business Adviser is crucial in preparing young people for the future world of work and successful futures.

How your role aligns with the Young Enterprise values as follows:

One Team

You will help to inspire and champion strong teamwork amongst the young people as well as working collaboratively with the Centre Lead (CL) to maximise the young people’s experience.

Unlocking Potential

You will play a key role as a Developer in identifying and unlocking the potential of the young people, by acting as an inspirer, expert, navigator, connector and champion.

Creating Great Impact

You will have a memorable impact on the young people and be a key part of their development and path to career success. You will support the young people to understand their strengths and areas for development which will give them an advantage for success in the world of work.

Enterprising and Resilient

As a champion, you will provide young people support to achieve their goals through mentoring. You will help them to embrace change, be innovative and respond effectively to the challenges they encounter.

Fulfilling your role

Over the course of the Programme, a BA can expect to fulfill their role as a Developer in a variety of ways:

> As an expert
Providing insider knowledge of the world of work, specialist advice, knowledge and skills.

Safeguarding the quality and safety of all products and services. Ensuring that the student company abides by the YE Operating Framework and adheres to Programme rules and business matters such as intellectual property, copyright and trademarks.

> As a navigator
Providing support on how to manage the process of running a business.

Supporting the experiential learning opportunity through providing structure to meetings, suggesting problem-solving techniques. Helping teams understand trade-offs and helping to assess progress against team and personal objectives. Often, this requires the adoption of a Devil’s Advocate approach, posing the right questions rather than offering too many answers. Sometimes, the BA needs to instill a sense of urgency when deadlines approach or the student company’s momentum drops (e.g. after a school holiday).

Facilitating reflection at all stages of the programme to help the young people consider the skills they have used and developed. There are videos available to support you in facilitating the experiential learning process.

> As an inspirer
Providing personal stories of overcoming barriers and achieving career success, acting as inspiration to young people.

Using examples from your personal experiences can be an effective way of helping young people understand business challenges and possible solutions; providing an insight into roles and jobs they may not have known about or considered previously.

> As a connector
Providing opportunities to meet other employers and community members who can support the young people to achieve their personal and student company goals.

Teams will have questions in a wide variety of areas; production, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, IT, etc. BAs cannot be expected to know everything, and they may need to go away and draw upon expertise outside their specialist areas, connecting the young people.

> As a champion
Providing both practical support and helping young people to identify their strengths and areas of development to achieve their goals through mentoring.

Helping young people to overcome tricky issues and helping to maintain morale and team spirit when they encounter various setbacks

Supporting young people to identify what they would like to achieve by the end of their experience and encouraging them to engage in activities that will build knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Supporting young people to reflect on what they are learning from the experience and how these examples can be used in the future.

Helping with early meetings

You may need to implement more structure and process in the first few student company meetings but should look to ensure that the young people feel strong ownership of their student company and are taking charge thereafter.

Choosing when to let a discussion run and when (and how) to intervene is a matter of careful judgement and getting this right is the essence of being a good adviser. Sensitivity to individuals and the dynamics of the group are also important attributes. The Centre Lead may be able to provide valuable context here.

Providing remote support

How will remote support work? (England & Wales only)

YE Digital Connect

You will be asked to sign up to YE Digital Connect so that many of your interactions with the student company can be conducted via the online mentoring platform hosted by Brightside.

Before you’re matched with a student company, you’ll be given access to some training about the platform so that you can familiarise yourself and feel confident before engaging with the students.

This is a moderated text based platform, it doesn’t provide videocalls or live messaging.

Video Conferencing

Your Centre Lead may decide to supplement YE Digital Connect with regular video conferencing meetings. Please be aware that all video meetings should take place using a school conferencing facility. In addition a member of school staff will be required to be present at each meeting.

In the event that schools shut because of another lockdown video conferencing will no longer be available and all communication will take place via YE Digital Connect as it is the only fully safeguarded way of communicating with students where a member of school staff is not present.