(above: Student finalists of NYEC 2025: Roshini, Faiz and Harell)

Ten years on, what difference does one entrepreneurship class really make?

For the thousands of students, educators, and volunteers who’ve walked through Halogen’s Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE—pronounced, “nifty”) programme, the answer lies not just in business plans and profit margins—but in mindsets changed, and confidence built, and futures rewritten.

Since its launch in 2013, NFTE—brought in and championed by Halogen Singapore—has reached over 5,000 young people, equipping them with the tools to think creatively, solve problems, and believe in their potential.

At its core, NFTE is not about turning every student into an entrepreneur. It is about cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset — one that enables young people to question assumptions, spot opportunities, take ownership of their ideas, and persist through uncertainty.

This mindset is what fuels innovation, whether in a business idea, a classroom presentation, or a young person finding their voice in a world that demands adaptability, courage, and clarity of thought.

The Student: From Hesitation to Confidence

(above: Prisca Roshini pitching her winning business idea on stage at NYEC 2025)

When Prisca Roshini from Changkat Changi Secondary School first joined NFTE, she never imagined she would one day represent Singapore on a global stage.

“I’m feeling very proud,” she said after being named Global Young Entrepreneur (Singapore) 2025. “I didn’t expect myself to come this far. My parents, my teacher, and my friends—they all believed in me when I couldn’t.”

Her business idea was a friendly AI Tutor Buddy designed to support introverted students, and it clinched her the first prize at the NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (NYEC). “If you think you can’t do it, just believe in yourself, put your heart and soul in the right place, and you’ll go to many, many places,” she added.

Her parents’ pride mirrors the transformation many NFTE families witness. “She’s really amazed us,” shared her mother. “This opportunity helped her come out of her comfort zone.” Her father added, “I always tell her, if you want to do something, you must believe it’s your own—and you’ll succeed.”

(above: Harrell receives his certificate of completion for the NFTE programme)

For another finalist, Harell from St Andrew’s Secondary School, NFTE became a turning point in finding confidence. Inspired by his father’s hearing difficulties, he created an earbud with vibration chips to help people with hearing loss enjoy music. “Before this, I was very introverted,” he admitted. “Through all the presentations and encouragement from facilitators, I became more comfortable talking to people. I cherish that the most.”

(above: Ahmad Faiz wins the Ann Tan Inspire Excellence Award, and Most Investible Idea Award)

And for Ahmad Faiz, winner of the Ann Tan Inspire Excellence Award and Most Investible Idea Award, the programme ignited a spark that extended beyond the competition.

“Winning this award helped me improve as a person,” he said. “NFTE taught me to go out of my comfort zone. My message to others? Just do it. You’ll never get another opportunity quite like this.”

Across these stories, the pattern is clear. When young people learn to think like entrepreneurs, they begin to see challenges as solvable, ideas as worth sharing, and themselves as capable of shaping change — not just responding to it.

The Alumni: A Decade in the Making

(above: Xavier Tan, entrepreneur and NFTE alumnus from year 2015)

Xavier Tan knows exactly how far one NFTE class can take you. 

He first joined Halogen’s NFTE programme in 2015 as a 16-year-old navigating family challenges. “It was a turning point,” he recalled. “Through NFTE, I found ways to pull myself out of negativity. It changed my perspective. I was so motivated to find things I’m passionate about and go all in.”

Representing Singapore at the World Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in New York City, Xavier found inspiration in the global energy of the community. “I saw that people had faith and confidence in youth,” he said. “After that trip I told myself, I’m going to start a business.”

Today, Xavier is the founder and CEO of Echante Communication Topographic Apparel and Rive Gauche Club (London). “Through entrepreneurship, I discovered perseverance,” he reflected. “If you don’t try, you’ll never know. NFTE and Halogen really kickstarted that adrenaline for me to go for it.”

His story embodies the Power of a Decade; proof that one programme can plant seeds that grow into lifelong purpose.

The Educator: Growing Beyond Grades

(above: Mr Ammar pictured on the most right with Edgefield secondary school student Mabel, who won NYEC 2024)

For Mr Ammar, an educator at Edgefield Secondary School and long-time NFTE champion, the programme redefines what learning can be.

“It offers students a chance to grow beyond the traditional classroom,” he shared. “We’ve seen quiet students take the lead, and others find talents they never knew they had.”

Since joining NFTE in 2018, Mr Ammar has guided multiple cohorts, including Mabel, Singapore’s 2024 Global Young Entrepreneur. “Mabel started out timid and reserved,” he recalled. “But through NFTE, through pitching, feedback, and mentoring; she grew into someone confident enough to share her ideas on stage and even go on a radio interview.”

He believes NFTE aligns perfectly with Singapore’s evolving education landscape. “Our system today values growth, adaptability, and real-world learning. NFTE builds entrepreneurial mindsets that help students face challenges with creativity and optimism. It’s about seeing opportunities, not obstacles.”

The Volunteer: A Ripple Effect of Empathy

Quentin Fouesnant, a corporate volunteer with NFTE for over four years, remembers walking into his first grand finale, not knowing what to expect.

“The energy was incredible,” he said. “Students cheering for one another, transforming from shy to confident—it was so meaningful.”

What keeps him coming back is the connection. “Sometimes, all a young person needs is a little affirmation,” he reflected. “You can see them transform right before your eyes.”

For Quentin, volunteering is as much a learning journey as teaching one. “People think volunteering is about giving, but you receive so much back. NFTE reminds me that youth already have empathy and imagination—we just need to help them see it.

A Decade Forward

From classrooms to boardrooms, from a 16-year-old Xavier in 2015 to Roshini, Faiz, and Harell in 2025, NFTE has shown that entrepreneurship is not just about business—it’s about belief.

A decade on, the true measure of NFTE’s success lies in every young person who’s learnt to think creatively, act boldly, and lead with purpose.

By cultivating entrepreneurial mindsets, Halogen is helping young people fuel innovation and lead change — in classrooms today, workplaces tomorrow, and communities for years to come.

As Halogen looks to the next ten years, its mission remains clear: to keep opening doors for youth, so they can open more for others.

Be part of the next decade.

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE)’s impact is made possible through the generosity of partners, donors, and volunteers who believe in young people before the world does. If you’d like to support, collaborate, or invest in the next generation of changemakers, we’d love to explore how we can create impact together.

This message was extracted from our Annual Report 2022. Learn more about our role in the youth development landscape over the past 20 years in the full report.

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Voyage on the sea

We have a metaphor within our team that likens our organisational journey to one of a sea quest. We are members on board a water vessel, and are constantly learning to navigate changing environmental elements whilst steering this vessel across an open ocean, towards a destination.

The voyage mission for our team has always been one that never wavered. We believe that young people have the ability to make a positive difference with their actions and words, wherever they are. To do this well, young people need to develop positive character, mindsets, and skill sets, so that they can steward their influence to create meaningful change in their personal lives and for the communities around them.

On Halogen’s part, we aim to create learning and experiential opportunities for young people from all walks of life to uncover this hidden potential, and equip them with skills to navigate the uncharted waters of life.

Steering Ahead

We have stayed the course while enduring much transitional change in 2022. Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Halogen team had to embark on a number of shifts to keep our organisation and work relevant to young people.

We pivoted most of our activities back into on-site modes for greater in-person engagement of our youth participants. While technology and teleconferencing tools bring great efficiency, they cannot compare to the power of genuine, human connections forged face-to-face, as we saw at our National Young Leaders Fellowship and NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. We learned new ways to run tech-enabled engagements, without sacrificing the ability to build deep dialogue and create memorable in-person experiences for our young people.

To prepare ourselves for the dynamically evolving youth landscape, we built a library of developmental attributes to sharpen our articulation of the character, mindset, and skill sets growth we want to see in the youth we serve. This library of knowledge is research-informed, providing a basis for an attributes-based approach that we can apply to our curriculum curation, programme development, implementation and evaluation.

The Halogen team also went through an internal organisational restructuring to consolidate and redesign our work scopes. We took on several digitalisation initiatives, and optimised relevant work processes to avail bandwidth for growth and innovation. The newly modelled teams can focus on developing new competencies, and establishing fresh offerings that will allow us to serve young people in areas beyond training. Serious, hard work was accompanied by inspiration and cheer, through the many stories we get to tell through our work. In many ways, our developmental work with youths help them navigate their futures, regardless of their chosen pathways. It is this single mission that continues to fuel our hearts, through the changing tides and waters.

Two decades of impacting young people

We have been privileged to have a whole ecosystem of supporters who also seek to invest in young people with us. As Halogen reaches its 20th year of inception this year, we share a sense of overwhelming gratitude to the community of benefactors, volunteers, partners and supporters who have contributed to our journey. Thank you for helping us make our youth development work possible through your time, expertise, sponsorship and belief.

In 2023, we want to celebrate the many people who’ve made their mark in one form or another:

These inspiring Halogen stories will continue to illuminate the minds of our youths, inspiring them to always dream brighter and do bigger things, in their individual journeys and collective ventures.

The Next Frontier

As Halogen ushers in the next phase of growth, we also have dreams of new frontiers to attain, and new adventures to embark on. We want to see a world made better by future-ready young people, and build an environment where young people have the courage to step up and catalyse change in their communities. We will amplify our efforts to equip and enable young people to lead themselves and others, and empower them to lead change. In time to come, we will also enable this sphere of impact to grow beyond Singapore’s shores, to enable our youth to explore new aspects of collaborating with like-minded young people from the region.

The next decade of youth development will be a volatile and complex one. But we know that with the strong anchor of our mission, and guidance from the compass of our values, we will navigate through the turbulent waters, and stay the course to help our youths pursue a brighter future. We truly hope you will come on board with us to invest in our next generation of young people. As these youths grow to take the helm for issues around the world, our actions of today matter the most. The journey we’re on is a crazy adventure, but one that is worthwhile and deeply fulfilling. Come be a part of our mission, and join us for our third decade of making an impact in the lives of youth!