Nurturing spirit of enterprise now begins in the classrooms

Nov 27 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

An opportunity to create a new generation of entrepreneurs or just a fun part of the curriculum? Karen Dent explores enterprise education and events and asks what part they play in encouraging the foundation of new businesses.

HUNDREDS of children around the region turned into junior entrepreneurs last week as they engaged their business brains at events marking Enterprise Week.

The idea of enterprise education has been around since the late 1980s and in the last few years, it has become an increasingly important part of the curriculum as Ministers try to fill ever-younger pupils with entrepreneurial ambitions. From drawing up business plans, putting together marketing campaigns and understanding cashflow, to making and selling their own goods, students are now equipped with business skills at a much earlier age than their parents.

The Make Your Mark campaign is the organising force behind Enterprise Week, which took place nationwide – and for the first time globally – last week. This year, the number of Enterprise Week events in the North East trebled to more than 460. Although also encouraging more women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds to consider starting up businesses, much of its focus is to be on the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“Enterprise Week is a taster to whet the appetite and get people wanting more,” said Pamela Hargreaves, the director of regions for the national Make Your Mark Campaign, which is run from Eston in Middlesbrough.

“I myself attended a number of events across the country. Some of the stories are amazing, such as people who got an idea through a challenge at school. There are a number of people doing wonderful things.”

She believes that creating a hunger and aspiration among the region’s young people is perhaps as important as persuading them to head out and immediately set up their own business.

“There are lots of young people that are no less imaginative or creative than people in other parts of the country. They need to fulfil their potential,” she said. “We are a region that does tend to think of itself as a region that can be a bit more dependent on public sector funding than other regions. If we are to buck that trend, we need to encourage more people to start their own businesses. We need to do that to compete with other regions.”

The value of teaching children enterprise skills in the classroom is also high on Ms Hargreaves’ agenda. Innovation, imagination, teamwork and problem solving are abilities that employers demand, as well as being essential building blocks for those considering starting a business.

“If we can deliver those skills among as many young people as possible, the likelihood of more young people going into business will substantially increase,” she said. “Even if it doesn’t lead to more entrepreneurs, it leads to more enterprising individuals.” One North East, which is working to increase the number of businesses in the region, agrees.

Enterprise manager Tasleem Baqir said: “Helping young people to recognise their capacity for enterprise and innovation and to see self-employment as a viable career option are among the ways in which we can increase the number of new businesses being created.

“But enterprise education is also important for its role in helping young people develop their wider skills in areas like problem solving, communications and lateral thinking.”

This is something the Government appears to have increasingly recognised in recent years by pumping more money into the subject.

Ms Hargreaves said: “Certainly over the last two or three years, the Government has made available more money that goes directly to schools. This is a specific amount of money that gets ring-fenced for enterprise education.

“The number of schools that are now engaging with enterprise education, that have enterprise champions – the number of those has grown like topsy.”

Of course, the North East has a vested interest in persuading more people to become business owners. Traditionally, we have been a region of employees rather than employers, which means we are lagging behind other parts of the UK in the enterprise stakes.

But ONE’s Ms Baqir says we are starting to catch up. “Research suggests that entrepreneurial activity in the North East has grown significantly since 2002, and Government figures issued this summer showed that the region’s stock of SME enterprises increased at the fastest rate in the UK in the last two years.

“Although there is still a way to go in a more challenging business climate, these figures show that we are heading in the right direction.”

Catching kids early and instilling a desire within them to be their own boss is playing a part in this gradual change.

“It’s a tough agenda for the North East,” said Ms Hargreaves. “I honestly believe if young people can have the experience, the excitement of setting up and running their own business [at school], the more young people will have a go in ‘real life’.”