Small firms ‘must motivate children’ to enter business
SMALL businesses, not millionaire moguls, must take the lead in introducing entrepreneurship to Britain’s schools, according to David Cameron’s enterprise advisor, Lord Young.
He said: ‘I want to bring enterprise advisers to talk to 12 or 13year-olds to motivate them to work. I’m not talking about bringing the Richard Bransons of this world, but someone who has left the school and has got a little business round the corner.
‘They can’t relate to people like Richard Branson. They have got to realise they could do this. The odds are they are going to work in a small business anyway.
‘This is going to be taken on in a big way and I have got the Local Enterprise Partnerships involved and they’re very keen.’
Lord Young, who was Trade Secretary under Margaret Thatcher, has written three reports for No 10 on enterprise. The latest, published last month, was into education and how entrepreneurship could be taught in schools.
He said: ‘You would be surprised how much enthusiasm people have for helping young people. They might not have much time, but we are talking about time to inspire them, not time to teach them. It will not be a problem to get volunteers.
‘At the moment it is not often you get small businesses visiting schools, because there is no mechanism, no system. I have agreed with Local Enterprise Partnerships that they will supervise progress.
‘They will take some responsibility and have panels of speakers that can go around the schools. But it is important not to be too prescriptive. They will appoint a couple of people to police this and by autumn it will be set up.’
Lord Young is also proposing that teachers visit businesses to ‘broaden their horizons’.
He said: ‘All of these proposals are voluntary, but schools are very well aware that they live in a silo. Teachers go to school, go to college and then go back to school. I want to set up a programme for large firms to take 10 teachers a week and show them how the world of business works and broaden their horizons.
‘It would be voluntary. Only those who want to would do it, but my suspicion is that once it starts going, they will want to go. There has never been a way to do it before.’