16 December 2021

Young Enterprise YES – National Awards

Local Southland student take out National Excellence Award at Young Enterprise National Award ceremony.

An Aparima College student is the winner of the 2021 Ministry of Youth Development Award for Resilience for The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).

Sole trader, Sam Pratt, created Tech Angel after seeing his grandad struggle with technology. Covid-19 lockdowns intensified the need for technology and many of the older generation were struggling to learn how to use technology. Sam wanted to help build their technological capabilities. An affordable and reliable service for the elderly, while making heart-warming friendships with each of his customers. Tech Angel is helping his local community, rebuilding hardware over a cup of tea and a chat.

To win the national title, Tech Angel completed a variety of business milestones during the year including business validation, pitching, promotion, and sales challenges.

The Honourable Priyanca Radhakrishnan presented this Award to Sam during an online ceremony held last night. Normally Sam would have travelled to Wellington to receive the award in person, but Young Enterprise Trust made the difficult decision to move The Lion Foundation YES National Awards to an online format this year.

It was a successful year for Southland sole traders. Kaylin Goodall of The Sill from Southland Boys High School, developed hydroponic kits designed for small spaces in your home, took out The Loin Foundation YES Southland Company of Year.


4701 students took part in The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme this year, creating over 1000 real-life businesses between them.

In Southland and Central Otago we had 33 teams competing this year representing Aparima College, Southland Girls’ High School, James Hargest College, Verdon College, Southland Boys’ High School, Mount Aspiring College and Wakitipu High School. The one-year programme gives students an authentic learning experience which develops their entrepreneurial mind-set and helps build transferable skills which are becoming increasingly sought after in employment.

Thank you to our local family of YES sponsors – Southern Institute of Technology, Community Trust South, South Port NZ Ltd, COIN South, Vet South, Findex, What’s on Invers, Craigs Design & Print, and ILT Foundation.

Other Past Events