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Education 'doesn't help', say entrepreneurs

Only one in ten small business bosses believe that having a good education is crucial to success in business, a new report has revealed. Less than half (46%) of the UK’s SME owner-managers have a degree, and 20% are educated to GCSE level or below.

According to the survey by Barclays Local Business, educational qualifications are no barrier to success in the UK. There are around 4.3 million SMEs in the UK and it seems that graduates of the ‘University of Life’ are more switched-on to starting-up alone in business, following in the famous footsteps of Gordon Ramsay, Simon Cowell, Dame Anita Roddick, Jacqueline Gold and Richard Branson. Barclay’s points to this year’s rise in tuition fees as a potential reason for young people choosing to shun higher education in favour of more immediate financial returns.

Entrepreneurs in The North East are least likely to have a degree (36%) with London the most likely (57%). The survey also reveals that the entrepreneurial world is dominated (65%) by the middle class, with only 26 per cent claiming to be working class.

John Davis, marketing director for Barclays Local Business, said: “This survey really does suggest that entrepreneurialism is a quality born to people, rather than taught.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .