New YES cohort challenged to build winning businesses

The Ministry of Youth has officially launched the 2025 edition of the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES), with Minister Charles Griffith encouraging 62 aspiring business owners to “show up, commit, and win” in the game of entrepreneurship.

Addressing the new cohort during an orientation ceremony on Saturday in the ministry’s training room, Griffith drew parallels between sport and business, likening the journey ahead to basketball training—demanding discipline, teamwork and resilience.

“This is not going to be a catwalk,” the minister told the room of young participants aged 18 to 35. “But it is something that is manageable. You’re going to have the suicide moments where you’re going to figure, ‘I can’t get this done.’ But it is the inner strength that will come from you.”

The current YES cohort—the first for 2025—will undergo training from June to October. This year’s programme includes an expanded curriculum, featuring new modules such as navigating funding agencies, understanding national standards and labelling, practical research tools, and project management.

Griffith stressed the importance of commitment, noting that a minimum 75 per cent attendance is required. But more than showing up, he emphasised the need for participants to support each other throughout the entrepreneurial process.

“As a collective, you need to pull together in the class to make sure that if I’m struggling, then you can rally around me to move me to the level that I’m supposed to be,” he said. “The concept of winning—how will your business function on the streets of Barbados and maybe beyond Barbados? You need to be able to have all of the skill sets so that when it is time for you to go into play, you can deliver, and deliver in a meaningful way.”

YES has long provided training and support for young Barbadians seeking to launch or scale their businesses. Since its inception in 1995, the programme has helped hundreds develop viable, sustainable enterprises, offering mentorship, technical training, and business incubation services.

Griffith, a former basketball coach, laced his address with metaphors from the sport to underscore the grit required for entrepreneurial success.

“You will be competing with others,” he said. “But if you have the basics, the customer service down pat… how you market, how you dress, and how you speak to people, then you have a good team, a solid team that will win every single time.”

He warned that while coaches will be there to guide them, it is ultimately the public—acting as the referee—that will determine the success of their ventures.

“The public will be the one to blow the whistle to say to you, stop, you’re doing something wrong,” he said. “So you need to be able to pivot… away from the negative things that are happening within your business and get back on track.”

The minister urged participants to embrace the intensity of the training, referencing the “suicides” drill in basketball—a grueling running exercise—as a metaphor for the difficulties they might encounter, but also overcome.

“All of you… are walking this morning on history’s page,” he said. “The truth is that you’re going to another level in terms of the training. And I hope all of you embrace it for what it is.”

Encouraging the cohort to see national recognition as a benchmark, Griffith said: “Your goal is to win, to help your business to win at the national level. You need to win a championship. Be able to have the business known across the island as something that is worthy, something that people will come back to.”

He added: “When we invest in our youth, we are not just building futures, we are shaping a stronger, more united Barbados.”

 (SZB)