“All the judges emphasised sustainability,” said Ye, who was named Best Business Plan winner at the end of the three-day programme.

His comments reflect how the annual programme aimed at inspiring and equipping youths to embark on social enterprises in Singapore and the region, has made a difference by enabling budding young social entrepreneurs to gain practical knowledge and new insights.

Comprising eight nationalities, the 14 teams taking part in this year’s programme learnt a multitude of lessons from experienced leaders and successful entrepreneurs like Nawal Roy of McKinsey & Company and Pong Yu Ming of Give.SG.

This year, the YSE programme gave participants an added opportunity to vie for a social enterprise study visit to Thailand and benefit from a two-month post-event mentorship programme with a leading local social enterprise.

At the YSE opening on 31 March, the SIF also signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Population and Development International (PDI) to enable the exchange of ideas and cooperation in social entrepreneurship and volunteer-driven development, with the aim of uplifting lives in developing communities.

PDI president, Dr Tanatat Puttasuwan, said his organisation’s first-ever MOU with a Singapore NGO “signifies our commitment in partnering with leading institutions in the region to strengthen sustainable community development in Thailand”.

Dr Tanatat was also the inaugural speaker at the SIF’s Ideas for a Better World Forum, where he shared PDI insights and perspectives on sustainable social enterprises.

At the end of the YSE programme on 2 April, each team gave a five-minute presentation outlining its proposed enterprise in the “Pitching for Change” segment.

As YSE programme judge and SIF governor Ms Elim Chew said afterwards: “All of you did a wonderful job.”

At the same time, Ms Chew, who is also founder of retail chain 77th Street, stressed that what almost every team had was “only a project idea” while “sustainable ideas” for the longer term were really needed.

The judges selected the Vocational English Training Organisation (V.E.T.O.) for the Best Business Plan award for its programme to teach English to migrant workers in Singapore.

The Most Innovative Business Plan award went to SocBiz for its plan to provide “free training and informal education while allowing orphans and panhandlers to get a job”.

Summing up, Ms Chew said participants should ask themselves whether their proposed enterprise was something “you think you can take up as a job”.

While ideas are good, she said, you’ll need to “live, eat, breathe” the business to make It successful.

The real satisfaction for her, she said afterwards, was that she knew each participant was a leader who had learnt from the YSE programme and could go on to create “a better community and a better world”.