Social Enterprise Academy Education

Spotlight on the Change Makers Marketplace ✨

The Marketplace is a core part of the Celebrating Young Changemakers Awards - a vibrant space showcasing pupil-led social enterprises from across Scotland.

This is where young people take the lead.

Every stall is a real trading social enterprise created and run by pupils, using their ideas, creativity and entrepreneurial skills to tackle real issues and make a positive difference in their schools and communities.

Across the zone, you’ll have the chance to meet the teams behind these enterprises, hear their stories, explore what they’ve built, and celebrate the impact they are already making.

· From ideas to action
· From classroom learning to real-world impact
· From young people — for their communities

This is more than a showcase - it’s a celebration of what happens when young people are given the space to lead, create and build something meaningful.

Learn more about the Awards 👉 https://lnkd.in/ev9AHC-u

📩 Contact [email protected]

Guest Spotlight: Will Bain ✨

We’re excited Will Bain, CEO of Scran Academy, is joining the Celebrating Young Changemakers Awards on 8th June at the EICC...

Scran Academy is a youth work catering social enterprise with a mission to ensure every young person - regardless of background or barrier - can realise their full potential in learning, work, and life.

With an incredible career in social enterprise in Edinburgh, Will is passionate about using food and cooking as a force for good.
Under his leadership, Scran Academy has supported more than 500 young people, opened two cafés, and delivered over 150,000 free meals to communities across Edinburgh.

He will be sharing insights into the power of social enterprise, youth work and creating opportunities through food, community and purpose-driven business.

🌟 If you would like to attend the event, please visit this page to secure your place: https://lnkd.in/ehGNqKtc

Learn more about the Awards 👉 https://lnkd.in/ev9AHC-u

📩 Contact [email protected]

Guest Spotlight: Zander Murray ✨

We’re thrilled Zander Murray is joining us at the Celebrating Young Changemakers Awards on 8th June at the EICC...

In 2022, Zander became the first Scottish professional footballer to come out as gay while actively playing the game. Since then, he has become an award-winning keynote speaker, presenter, and advocate for inclusion across sport, education, and business.

Zander has worked with organisations including UEFA, LinkedIn, and Morgan Stanley, featured in documentaries including BBC’s Out on the Pitch, and was recognised by Attitude Magazine as one of the trailblazers changing the world!

His story of authenticity, courage and positive change makes him a brilliant addition to this year’s event, where he will also be presenting awards in our Marketplace Zone.

🌟 If you would like to attend the event, please visit this page to secure your place: https://lnkd.in/ehGNqKtc

Learn more about the Awards 👉 https://lnkd.in/ev9AHC-u

📩 Contact [email protected]

Speaker Spotlight: Rose Reilly MBE ✨

We are honoured to welcome Rose Reilly MBE to the Celebrating Young Changemakers Awards on the 8th June at the EICC..

This year’s awards theme “Playing it Forward” captures the excitement of the World Cup and recognises the role of our young social entrepreneurs as game changers in their own communities.

Born in Kilmarnock and raised in Stewarton, Rose became one of the most influential pioneers in women’s football. At a time when opportunities for women in Scotland were severely limited, she moved abroad at 17 to pursue a professional career - going on to win eight Italian Serie A titles, four Coppa Italia trophies, and captain Italy to international victory in 1984.

Awarded an MBE and inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, Rose’s impact reaches far beyond football.

Her story is one of determination, courage and challenging barriers - making her an inspiring addition to an event celebrating young changemakers creating positive impact in their own communities.

Rose will be joining us to present awards in our Marketplace Zone.

🌟 If you would like to attend the event, please visit this page to secure your place: https://lnkd.in/ehGNqKtc

Learn more about the Awards 👉 https://lnkd.in/ev9AHC-u 📩

Contact [email protected]

👏 Our Young People have now all pitched their social enterprises to Aegon UK Dragons in Edinburgh, Peterborough, and Essex. All were supported on the day by their mentors, who have built amazing relationships during our partnership. They have shared their skills and experience, inspiring and supporting the young people build their confidence, life skills, and entrepreneurial mindset. There were nerves, we can’t lie, but we know having their mentor there, as a supportive, friendly face in the audience helped give them that extra boost on the day. 🌟

There was also some friendly competition between our mentors trying to sneak a peek at the Dragons' winners before they were announced, but we managed to keep it a secret as our Dragons had a very difficult choice to make.

One of our Dragons, Ian Brady-Price, Head of Service – Workplace Operations for Aegon UK shared, "The Dragons' Den was fabulous with so much enthusiasm, passion, teamwork, and really credible Q&A showing amazing resilience for year 6 pupils. The emotional intelligence to their chosen cause was empathetic and very considerate with kindness ….blown away on the confidence."


Ian is not the only one, we continue to be blown away by the innovative ideas and social issues the young people have chosen to tackle through our social enterprise schools programme, we have some incredibly inspiring young leaders who we are sure will make a huge impact in the future. 💡


The Coach to Succeed mentor partnership with Aegon UK has helped deepen the impact for the young people and provided some incredibly inspirational mentors who really have opened up the world of opportunity. We also know our young people have inspired our mentors and helped their own personal development. Amazing value for all who have taken part.

A highlight was seeing our mentors receive their certificates which were presented by the young people they have supported over the year. 🎖️

These partnerships are critical in supporting young people who face many barriers, we would love to be able to meet the demand and are always seeking new partners like Aegon UK who want to truly make a difference whilst engaging and developing their talent. So, if your organisation would like to support the communities you are part of in a meaningful way email [email protected] and one of our team will get in touch. 🙋‍♀️

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The City of Edinburgh Council:
- Craigmount High School
- St Augustine's RC High School

Peterborough City Council
- St John's Church School

Essex County Council
- Barnes Farm Primary School

🐉 Today we were delighted to welcome five social enterprises created by young people from St Augustine's RC High School and Castlebrae Community Campus in The City of Edinburgh Council who pitched to our amazing Dragon's at the The Royal Bank of Scotland Business Accelerator Hub in Princess Street, Edinburgh.

🙌 Huge thanks to our sponsors Wheatley Group and Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal for supporting our event and ensuring all of the social enterprises who pitched today received seed funding to start trading.

It was great to have Erin and Will from Scran Academy, Cameron from Royal Bank of Scotland Business Accelerator Hub and finally Satvinder from Howden Insurance as our Dragons. We know you all had a really tough job picking the winner! 🏆

🙋‍♂️ If you would like to find out more about how you can support our work with young people, please contact [email protected].

Our Aegon UK mentors and the young people they have been working with have had a busy few weeks! They have been working together to develop their social enterprise ideas further, create marketing plans, and getting ready to pitch their social enterprise at a Dragons’ Den style event. We are all excited to hear about the social issue they want to solve and how they will do this through social enterprise!

The Aegon UK mentors have had a big impact on our young people so far. Teachers have shared some great examples of behavioural changes, including growing confidence and engagement. The mentors are incredibly invested in supporting our young people to be their best, see their strengths and develop their self-confidence whilst growing and developing themselves.

A huge thank you to all of our Aegon UK mentors for their work and effort so far! We cannot wait to see this journey continue over the next few months.

You can also read more about one example of the partnership between Aegon UK and the Social Enterprise Academy at Barnes Farm Primary School in Essex here: https://essex-tv.co.uk/first-essex-school-selected-for-dragons-den-social-enterprise-competition/

We are always keen to connect with organisations who would like to support the communities they are part of in a meaningful way. If you would like to find out more about supporting young people in your area, please email [email protected] and one of our team will get in touch.

👏 We were delighted to introduce our Aegon mentors to our young people at our Social Enterprise Schools Pupil Workshops. The mentors joined the groups of young changemakers at the beginning of their journey, where they will be starting a trading social enterprise to solve a social issue they care about. The mentors joined young people from:

🙋‍♂️ Craigmount High School, The City of Edinburgh Council

🙋‍♀️ St Augustine's RC High School, The City of Edinburgh Council

🙋‍♂️ St John's School, Peterborough City Council

🙋‍♀️ Barnes Farm School, Essex County Council

Our Aegon UK mentors have been busy building on that first workshop and have facilitated the first of three mentoring sessions to “Build a Social Enterprise.”

The mentors have been sharing their experiences from the world of business to help the young people develop their ideas on what type of social enterprise they will set up to solve their chosen social issue. We are excited to see how these young change makers' ideas develop over the coming weeks, so look out for more updates as they work towards their Dragons’ Den Pitching events.

📧 Get in touch! We are always keen to connect with organisations who would like to support their communities in a meaningful way, through supporting young people. Email [email protected] to find out more!

🎉 Today, we are delighted to share an exciting new partnership between Aegon UK and Social Enterprise Academy Schools!

Our Social Enterprise Academy team have been working with nine volunteer mentors from Aegon's Edinburgh, Witham and Peterborough offices. This programme has been designed to develop the mentors' skills to support young people in local schools taking part in Social Enterprise Schools to reach their full potential.

The young people will develop:
🤝Employability skills
🙋‍♂️Confidence
🗣️Entrepreneurial skills

They will be supported at every step by their mentor to create a trading social enterprise solving a social issue they care about.

We were oversubscribed by schools wishing to take part in this fantastic opportunity to work and learn from mentors in industry. If you are an organisation looking to create social impact in a meaningful way then please get in touch as we have plenty of young people waiting to be inspired.

📧Email [email protected] for more information.

🎬🙌 We’re proud to officially launch the 2025 Social Enterprise Academy Scotland Schools Awards video highlights: https://youtu.be/H55iIAeTn_s

Earlier this summer, we welcomed over 60 schools from across Scotland to our first Neuroinclusive Event at the EICC for a day that left us inspired, hopeful, and in awe of the next generation of changemakers. 💡

Under the theme "A World of Opportunity, Created by Young People", young social entrepreneurs presented powerful, real-world solutions to issues like mental health, climate change, food poverty and more. These aren’t just school projects – they’re trading social enterprises driven by purpose, empathy and action.

The exciting and high energy day started with the inspiring Ana Stewart, Chief Entrepreneur for The Scottish Government opening our marketplace and finished with an amazing performance by Just the Brave who closed our Awards Ceremony with their new single Butterflies.

A huge thank you to our brilliant partners, sponsors and supporters:
🙌 Headline Sponsors - The Scottish Government and the incredible EICC
🏆 Award Sponsors - Social Enterprise Scotland, University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School, Impact-Driven Entrepreneurship Education for Children (IDEEC) and James Fairweather Charitable Trust
🚊 Travel Sponsors - Koehler Energy Group and Community Enterprise
🤝 Our partners in the opportunity village - goodmoves, EICC and the SRUC
🧠 Welcome brain who helped us achieve our Bronze Award for our neuroinclusive event.

👏 Thank you to all the pupils, educators and communities behind these projects! We can’t wait to share exciting news for what’s coming in 2026. Watch out for how you can get involved!

Social Enterprise Academy Awards 2025 | Edinburgh, Scotland Over 60 schools from across the country gathered at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) to celebrate the achievements of their inspiring you...