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How can we encourage young people into enterprise?

In recent years, post-school opportunities have diversified and students are no longer told that university is the only route to success. Thanks to continued government investment, there were 440,000 apprenticeships created in the 2013/14 academic year, while PM David Cameron has promised to create 3 million placements to help encourage young people into the workplace. However, many young people are choosing to forgo higher education all together, and jump head first into the world of business.

With entrepreneurship amongst young people on the rise, how can we fully prepare them for the business world? Should we be teaching enterprise in schools? Should it be compulsory or optional?

Many schools and colleges are already supporting young people with their entrepreneurial aspirations. 18-year old Luke Farrell launched his own digital design company thanks to support from Gateshead College. Northern Design Centre already works alongside several local companies to design apps and websites, and Luke is now looking to employ a student from his college to mentor.

It’s not just the tech-savvy who benefit from the educational enterprise schemes; Jules Quinn set up The *TeaShed, a design-led tea, teaware and homeware company, with the help of Northumbria University’s Graduate Enterprise Scheme. In 2013, Jules said: “I always knew I wanted to run my own business but although you work for yourself, you never really work by yourself.”

The Department of Education encourages entrepreneurs to go into schools and share their life lessons with students, not just practical skills like accounting and HR. Following Ofgem’s crackdown on energy suppliers, chief executive of E.ON, Tony Cocker, found that trust is one of the most important aspects of working in business – a valuable life lesson any young entrepreneur would be grateful for. Schemes like these are invaluable as they allow young people to learn from the mistakes made by their predecessors

To encourage young people into enterprise, former Dragons’ Den star, Theo Paphitis, launched The National Enterprise Challenge. The inter-school competition is available to all secondary schools in the UK and is divided into two age categories: Key Stage 3 (Year 7/8) and Key Stage 4 (Year 9/10). The friendly yet competitive atmosphere helps to develop students creativity while giving them a background knowledge of how business works.

Schools can even organise internal schemes to encourage young people to turn their hands at enterprise. Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship Week 2013 and assistant headteacher at Avonbourne College, Bournemouth, Kathryn Loughnan, has argued that time should be set aside to allow students to tap into their entrepreneurial side. Each month, she holds an “E-day” (enterprise day) where students set up a stall, run an event or lead a campaign so that they apply the entrepreneurial thinking they’ve developed across the curriculum. Taking part in these sorts of activities gives students the skills to stand out from the rest when applying for jobs, or even starting their own businesses. Encouraging young people into enterprise is as simple as giving them the opportunity to try new things and find their niche, while fully supporting them along the way.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leigh Counsell .