A lesson in social enterprise sees bosses going back to the classroom

Miss Young, a self-proclaimed "chatterbox" from Wakefield, is setting up social enterprise School Speakers to give children a chance to hear from the best in the business world.

The 31-year-old has teamed up with Catherine Yaffe, 39, a recruitment and social media expert and journalist who runs Cat Creative Media, and they have already registered 40 speakers, including Richard McCann, whose "iCan" approach is designed to help people overcome adversity, and Lee Jackson, who specialises in helping schoolchildren.

Miss Young is a former holiday rep and retail buyer for Superdrug who has become an object of tabloid fascination, thanks to her love life, significant weight loss and series of business ventures. She said young people, particularly girls, needed to hear from someone who could talk to them on their terms.

"The Girl Guides are great, but if you ask girls if they want to come and talk about badges, they would say, 'I am going to the park to drink cider with my boyfriend'. (Teachers) say it is really difficult finding people to come in to talk about enterprise."

School Speakers will act as an agency, saving teachers the large amount of time needed to find suitably inspiring characters to address their pupils.

It will donate five per cent of its fees into helping schools cover the cost of more speakers.

"We are going to make money, but are we going to make millions from it? No. Teachers said 'thank God' somebody is providing it."

Miss Young, who attended Wakefield Girls' High School, and Miss Yaffe will be based at the family-run Trinity Space Centre, at Waterfront Wakefield.

The ex-television star also said challenges posed by the economic slump would help to create the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

"I think that in three to five years' time there will be people who overcame the problems, saying, 'The recession made me'."

Miss Young has also set up Girls Out Loud, another social enterprise designed to raise the aspirations of teenage girls, with speaker and coach Jane Kenyon.

It aims to reconnect girls with education, help them do well in exams, encourage them to find own individual voice and make better life decisions.