The Singapore International Foundation's (SIF) signature Young Social Entrepreneurs (YSE) program made its debut in China with two successive events held in Shanghai. 

The events connected 50 young aspiring changemakers – from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – to benefit from cross-cultural exchange and insights into China's vast and vibrant social enterprise landscape.

Following previous editions held in Bangalore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai, the event in Shanghai was exclusive to youths based in China seeking to take their social enterprise to the next level. 

This pioneer batch includes a total of 12 social enterprises from various parts of the country, namely, Shanghai, Changchun, Hangzhou and Shenzhen. The youths engaged in an intensive line-up of activities comprising workshops, peer learning and sharing sessions, a World Café-style dialogue, a media pitching session and a public discussion panel.

"For young social entrepreneurs committed to driving social progress, our biggest challenge is ensuring sustainability. Within a short period, the YSE workshop had introduced many useful skills my team could strongly resonate with. An example is the impact measurement session led by Capacity Building Assessment Centre which took on a clear and practical assessment approach. We look forward to applying some of these learnings to improve our social business model," shared Jenny Zhao, Chinese participant and co-founder of China Youth Of Tomorrow (CYOT), a social enterprise that strives to empower first-generation college students to drive social mobility in China.

According to Sherilyn Chia, Programme Lead of YSE Programme, "this is the 10th year we're running the programme. We assign them to business mentors, skill professionals from consulting firms and also experienced entrepreneurs who know the journey, of how difficult it is to start a company, who know the community that (is) serving well, and bring all these knowledge to them to succeed."

For the main international program, 15 social enterprises from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Thailand were shortlisted into the seven-month journey after a 4 day Workshop which took place this March in Singapore. They will receive mentorship and experiential study visit for their social enterprises, and regroup in October to pitch for up to 20,000 Singapore dollars each to launch or scale their social enterprises.

Participants from the overseas workshop in Shanghai will have the opportunity to further their YSE journey by applying for direct admission into the 2020 edition of the main international program.