A day in the life at Young Enterprise NI

He is an experienced graphic and web designer with a flair for social media and communications. He took up his current role in July last year.

Alastair is married to Joy and lives in Lisburn with his stepdaughter Katie aged 6.

Young Enterprise NI is Northern Ireland’s leading business education charity. Aiming to bridge the gap between companies and classrooms, they encourage young people to be creative and develop entrepreneurial qualities at a young age.

I take the train to Belfast and dander to my office on Donegall Pass. Most of my day is spent writing and sending press releases about the programmes we deliver in schools right across Northern Ireland.

Each year, with the support of our business volunteers and supporters, we inspire over 100,000 young people aged four to 25 years. We work with 80% of Post Primary and 15% of Primary schools throughout Northern Ireland. Our programmes empower the next generation with the confidence, ability and ambition to succeed in employment, self-employment and enterprise.

My role involves pinpointing outstanding individuals or businesses that are involved with Young Enterprise and creating a story around them for publication. This means keeping an eye on what my colleagues, our students, volunteers and alumni are up to across Northern Ireland.

My job allows me to see first-hand the exciting things our young businesspeople are doing at trade fairs, awards ceremonies and fundraisers. I’m also our in-house photographer and social media expert, so I will often be seen snapping aways and tweeting at our events.

Once a press release goes out I update our website and social media channels. I am responsible for our online content, so am always looking for new ways to enhance our website. I also use social media as a way to find former students who went through our programmes so we can do a profile them and show how our programmes have helped others to be successful.

Sometimes I have to attend events in the evening but normally I leave at 5pm and head home to spend time with my family.

It is the first time I’ve had a job where I leave in the evening and think we are doing something positive and we are really making a difference to the lives of young people. This gives me a lot of job satisfaction.