Young Enterprise Blog

What firms get out of working with Britain's largest enterprise education charity

2012-02-23T08:17:00.019-08:00

Catherine Marchant
Interim Chief Executive
Young Enterprise

I am often asked: how would my company benefit from taking part in Young Enterprise?

Let me answer that by asking you some questions.

Have you ever felt that many young people leave school ill-equipped for their working life?

Or that some potential young recruits lack a well-developed ability to work in a team; seem a little shy of taking the initiative; and tend not to have the self-discipline to start and finish tasks on time?

If so, you are in good company. Some 75% big firms surveyed by Freshminds for Young Enterprise agreed with you that schools often fail to give young people vital ‘employability’ skills. And that’s why your company would benefit from working with us.

The very fact that Young Enterprise programmes are run by business people means they provide you with an opportunity to address these issues.

Every year 250,000 young people - from 4-year-olds on our Primary Programme to 25-year-olds on our undergraduate business Start-up scheme - are helped to learn about the world of work, business and enterprise with help from a network of 5,000 volunteers from 3,500 companies.

No fewer than 25,000 young people aged 15 to 19 are, as you read this, taking part in our flagship Company Programme. They are running their own real companies with guidance from our network of 5,000 business volunteers.

There are three altruistic reasons why you should get involved with Young Enterprise:

· It’s a unique experience. Taking part in the Company Programme gives young people practical experience of running a business. They come up with an idea, raise their own capital, keep accounts, pay tax, market and sell their service, write company reports. Something they can’t pick up from a book.

· It improves their career prospects: universities look favourably on participation in Company Programme, so candidates are more likely to reach the institution of their choice.

· It raises young people’s self-esteem: running their own business and doing it successfully makes young people more confident and raises their aspirations.

A million students have been through the Company Programme since the organisation was founded in 1963. Many say it helped them hugely in making the transition from school to work. Often they go on to outstanding business success.

Research in 2008 found alumni earn one-third more than their peers by the age of 30, they are twice as likely to set up their own business and they felt that Young Enterprise gave them more skills than work experience, extra-curricular activities and school.

How can you support all this work?

By allowing individual members or groups of your staff become classroom volunteers. Pro-bono help and cash donations to fund local programmes and Young Enterprise awards are very welcome. There are also opportunities to drive the charity forward by serving on our advisory and trustee boards.

So, I hear you say: what does my business get out of it? Well, taking part in a programme does not only help the recipients, there are also significant benefits for those delivering it.

Becoming a Young Enterprise volunteer is challenging. Planning and presenting a school-based programme is no picnic and sessions require significant planning and co-ordination with the school concerned. But the excitement and satisfaction of mentoring, of transforming attitudes and helping young people open their eyes to the world of enterprise keeps thousands of volunteers coming back year after year.

Increasingly, companies are using Young Enterprise as a key element of their formal staff development programmes. The publicity generated by supporting an activity can raise the profile of a business. You even get an early look at talented potential recruits.

And that, in a nutshell, is why firms like Cadbury, HSBC, GKN, Cisco, Santander, Caterpillar. Cima, GE, P&G, KPMG, Ryman, Accenture to name just a few get involved with Young Enterprise, and I hope you will too.

Catherine Marchant,

Interim Chief Executive

Young Enterprise

Will Britain's young save the British economy?

2012-01-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

This article appears in the
influential HR & Training Journal

In the wake of the riots that wreaked havoc in our towns and cities, what should the nation do? How are we going to instil a greater sense of personal and civic purpose in our children and young people? What more can be done to give them the kinds of skills and attitudes that will enhance their employability and get them ready for the world of work? And what is to be done to address the recent Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) survey where 69% of firms said young people have inadequate business and customer awareness, and over half (55%) said they lack personal management skills such as attendance, punctuality and motivation? A key conclusion has already become clear: the education system must concern itself with a lot more than simply exam results.

One organisation working to address these needs is Young Enterprise, the UK's largest business and enterprise education charity. Young Enterprise commissioned its own research to assess the scale of the employability crisis identified by the CBI. We asked the FreshMinds consultancy to draw up a comprehensive, in-depth online survey. It was conducted among business leaders from 28 of the most important and influential UK employers.

The survey respondent group was drawn from Young Enterprise's corporate supporters. This group included Cadbury, HSBC, BT, GKN, P&G, General Electric, Cisco, Citi, Santander and the chartered institutes of accounting and marketing. Together, the survey group accounted for 700,000 employees or members, a hefty 2.4% chunk of the British economy. The results showed the employability crisis looms large in employers' minds:
•21 major companies (approximately 75%) felt that the British education system is not equipping young people with the right skills for them to enter the workforce;
•16 (59%) felt that the education system was poor at developing young people's entrepreneurial skills;
•18 (64%) thought that the education system was poor at developing financial skills among young people;
•17 (61%) said they felt Young Enterprise's activities made a significant difference in filling these gaps and preparing young people for the future;
•24 (89%) said they thought it was 'very important' for business to be involved in young people's education.

When asked what, if any, skills young people lacked that they needed to be employable comments included:
'Too many to list. Commercial awareness, written and spoken English to a high enough level, technical skills, interpersonal skills, you name it.'
'Practical application skills to link what they learn academically at school with real-life skills in the commercial world.'

'The soft skills to enable them to think outside the box. They need mentors and role models to see why people are successful.'
'Acceptance of hierarchy…attention to detail, willingness to be of service to others.'
'The skills that Young Enterprise provides.'

Young Enterprise chairman Ian Smith said: "With a million young people unemployed in this country, this powerful Young Enterprise research is a wake-up call.

Young recruits are presenting themselves for interview without the vital employability skills that employers look for – such as attendance, punctuality, motivation and a general 'can do' attitude. Too many businesses are using this lack as an excuse to employ foreign workers or shift work abroad. The situation is getting worse because the Department of Education is adopting an alarmingly narrow focus on academic skills and exams that will make it less likely that students emerge from education with these employability skills.

"We believe the government needs to adjust its approach. It should put enterprise education on the formal National Curriculum. Ministers should also encourage businesses to send staff into schools to help young people learn the world of work. If we do, we can create a step change in the quality of recruits our schools are turning out.''

So why does Young Enterprise believe it can create an enterprise generation?
With 50 years of experience behind us, every year we help 250,000 young people aged four to 25 learn about business and the world of work in classrooms, colleges and universities. They do this under the guidance of 5,000 business volunteers from 3,500 companies. We work in every area of the country, including many of the most deprived neighbourhoods. Through our work, young people 'learn by doing' in ways that could never be achieved by academic approaches alone. Young Enterprise programmes start with 'Ourselves', which takes students on an engaging story-based journey exploring the world of work, saving, earning, decision-making and teamwork. They culminate in our flagship 'Company' and 'Start-up' programmes that enable 30,000 15-25 year olds to run their own real companies for a year with help from business mentors. Many of the scheme's alumni have gone on to outstanding business success.

The passion and commitment our work provokes in young people convinces us we have the mechanism for producing the innovative and enterprising young people the UK needs to ensure its future prosperity. The only questions are, is it big enough? And is the government prepared to broaden the excessively tight focus it has adopted on academic skills and exams? These questions are vital because the new government's approach lacks a grip on the skills, attitudes and behaviours that young people actually need in their working lives and that employers look for when hiring young recruits.

But does Young Enterprise work? The most authoritative voice in educational standards, Ofsted, says yes. It wrote in a report entitled 'Economics, business and enterprise education' in June 2011: 'Extra-curricular activities, such as Young Enterprise…were a feature of those schools where the curriculum was judged to be good or outstanding.'

The young people also seem to think so. Members of the 'Tripz n Tipz' Young Enterprise team from the John Spence Community High School, a comprehensive in the North East of England, are convinced. Their company, making travel packs to entertain children on holiday flights, has done a deal with Thomson Travel. 'Our journey with Young Enterprise has been absolutely fabulous. We would recommend Young Enterprise to anyone.'

Sahar Khan, Managing Director of Young Enterprise company 'Cook-it GB', from Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire agreed: "We have many high achievers in our team from people with high grades to Welsh champion athletes. But unanimously Young Enterprise beat all these hands down."

Aaron Callaghan, Managing Director of Young Enterprise group 'Generations', a record company from Wallace High School, Lisburn said: "We have had so many opportunities we would never have had if we hadn't taken part in Young Enterprise. It has been brilliant."

Neil Makin, Chairman of the Cadbury Foundation said: "Over the past 50 years, Young Enterprise has deservedly earned its reputation as the first name in enterprise education in the UK. Cadbury has been proud to work with it."

Peter Bull, Head of HSBC in the Community said: "HSBC is proud to have been working with Young Enterprise for over 25 years. Its work fits in perfectly with HSBC's global policy of supporting the education of young people.''

Phil Smith, Chief Executive of Cisco UK said: "Young Enterprise is a charity that allows schools to run business programmes within schools. The pupils can set up businesses, create their own profits, issue their own shares and so on. It is amazing the sort of transformations that you see."

More than 180 companies, organisations and individuals have signed up to support the 'Young Enterprise Charter' campaign. Among other things it calls for enterprise education to be placed within official school curriculum.

To find out more and sign up please go to: www.young-enterprise.org.uk/about_us/charter

For more information about Young Enterprise please visit: www.young-enterprise.org.uk

Shrugging off the comfort of conformity with Young Enterprise

2012-01-03T03:13:00.001-08:00

Britain's education system is increasingly encouraging conformity through a growing emphasis on knowledge and testing, Young Enterprise argues in a key new report.

At a time when it is vital we encourage the next generation to become more inventive and entrepreneurial - to ensure they have jobs in the wake of the economic slowdown - schools are under pressure to do the opposite.

They are being forced to make young people reach for the ' the comfort of conformity' and search for the 'right' answer, which exists within a body of knowledge that someone else has already built, says the report in the latest edition of the influential Public Service Review.

In it, the former Young Enterprise Chief Executive John May writes:

How do we ensure that 15 year olds
remain as creative as they were are nine?

'Visit any primary school in the country and you will find some of the most inventive minds you will ever come across. Give a class of nine year olds a problem and they will come back to you with a host of solutions. Not all of them will be practicable, but many of them will be. Some of them will even be inspired.

'Sadly, by the time many of those nine year olds make the transfer to 'big school', they will have learned that there is only one answer to every question ? and that, generally speaking, it is their teacher who will know it, not them. Move on a couple more years and you'll be lucky to get any answer at all out of a class. It's all too often simply not cool to think creatively or inventively.

'What do we do to our youngsters to change them so much? To restrict their thinking? To make them so risk averse in the classroom? It's not just a matter of adolescent hormones kicking or a growing desire not to look stupid in front of one's peers. Our education system, with its emphasis on knowledge and testing, encourages the comfort of conformity and the search for the 'right' answer, which exists within a body of knowledge that someone else has already built.

'If we are going to encourage the next generation to be more inventive, more entrepreneurial and more creative, then we must address this assumption that knowledge is the only thing that is important. Of course, knowing things is vital. Children need to leave school with a grasp of their nation's history, some geographical facts, an understanding of mathematical principles and the ability to read and write. But they also need to develop the skills to think laterally, to work collaboratively, to problem solve, to test hypotheses. In short, they need to develop skills and behaviours for adult life as well as amassing knowledge. As well as. Not instead of.

'For the last 50 years, Young Enterprise has been helping young people to apply their learning of knowledge to real-life situations and so also develop skills and behaviours. Its programmes encourage pupils to create innovative solutions and test those solutions out on real people. In its most famous programme, teams of young people set up mini-companies, each with their own product or service raise share capital, trade for real and compete for business. Young people are encouraged to think differently, recognise the power of teamwork and take calculated risks. They are also encouraged to enjoy the experience and to learn from their errors as well as their successes.

'In an environment where the curriculum appears to be narrowing and where knowledge appears to be king, the work of Young Enterprise and other informal education organisations is more needed than ever before. 15 year olds can be as inventive and creative as nine year olds. We just need to give them the permission to be so.'

Young Enterprise hits the Silicon Valley

2011-12-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

The historic Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco

An incredible week in awesome San Francisco

Young Enterprise Board member Meryl White writes about the Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Symposium

Meryl White

The event was first held in November 2005 when Intel and Berkeley established an ambitious programme to support entrepreneurship globally, build a worldwide community of educators skilled in delivering entrepreneurship and exchange ideas and practices. Previous themes have included teaching and fostering entrepreneurship and curriculum development. The event in 2011 focused on the theme of mentorship with the launch of the GELS and Master Mentor programme to support entrepreneurs and startups and also included the annual Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley, a global business plan competition with high class teams from all over the world.

I was in eminent company as the participants comprised over 60 academics and affiliates, from all over the world. We were treated to amusing, inspiring and thought provoking inputs from Professor Jerry Engels and Faculty Co Director David Charron, both from the University of California, Berkeley, and a variety of speakers from Intel. They led us in challenging and high powered debates about entrepreneurship, mentoring concepts, processes and tools.

Intel HQ, Santa Clara

The second day was full of wow factor with a visit to Intel HQ at Santa Clara at the heart of the world’s exemplar cluster of innovation, the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley. Here we saw at first hand how the organisation really champions innovation and the rapid development of technology. This was the first museum I’ve ever visited with nothing in it older than 40 years (apart from me and a few of the other GELS participants). It was evident right from the top that Intel has never lost sight of the value it places on people and its commitment to mentoring and volunteering, with Intel chief, Shelly Esque’s passionate presentation of how the company’s role in technology is supporting many communities across the world.

Finally, as the key theme of the symposium was mentorship, there was an opportunity to work with entrepreneurs and students as mentors. Research from 650 companies was presented which showed the significant value mentoring brings to business. As the week went on, we began the process of shadow judging the Intel Challenge business plan competition with 20 high performing teams from all over the world who had reached the final stages of the competition.

Since we were in what Professor Jerry Engels described as ‘the ecosystem of venture capitalists’, it was suggested that the only criteria by which to judge a team should be : ‘Would the judges put money into the venture and did the team do enough in the early stages to make the judges believe in the future of the product?’ I’m sure there was fervent debate amongst the judges about the winners, if our own shadow judging discussions were anything to go by.

We considered the main areas for each team’s improvement in preparation for the mentoring sessions. Not surprisingly, these focused on the ability and skill of team members to communicate simple messages about product, price, business plan and strategies to deliver the ‘pitch’ - no difference to Sir Alan and his Apprentices there. The products were highly technical, often with clinical applications and developed by post graduates, so the teams had to consider the global impact and social need for their product. This meant that the balance of the team in terms of technical and commercial expertise was critical. The whole experience proved to be very productive.

I have to offer my huge thanks to Young Enterprise and Intel for the opportunity to attend GELS. This was an incredible week and I was very privileged to participate in this global community of educators and entrepreneurship leaders. Though coming from very different backgrounds and cultures, we all shared a common commitment to bettering the world we live in by furthering, supporting and mentoring young budding entrepreneurs. Long may this continue. Awesome!

The Symposium

Young Enterprise hits the Silicon Valley

2011-12-06T06:03:00.000-08:00

The historic Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco

An incredible week in awesome San Francisco

Young Enterprise Board member Meryl White writes about the Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Symposium

Being a Yorkshire lass born and bred, ‘awesome’ is not a word which frequently forms part of my vocabulary but I could use it without any difficulty to describe the week I’ve spent in San Francisco at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. I was at the Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Symposium (GELS) around the time of Global Entrepreneurship week in my volunteer role as a national Trustee of Young Enterprise and as a guest of Intel. The event was first held in November 2005 when Intel and Berkeley established an ambitious programme to support entrepreneurship globally, build a worldwide community of educators skilled in delivering entrepreneurship and exchange ideas and practices. Previous themes have included teaching and fostering entrepreneurship and curriculum development. The event in 2011 focused on the theme of mentorship with the launch of the GELS and Master Mentor programme to support entrepreneurs and startups and also included the annual Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley, a global business plan competition with high class teams from all over the world.

Meryl White

Why enterprise must be at the heart of Labour politics in the 21st Century. Edited by Alex Smith and Luke Bozier

2011-11-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Chuka Umunna:
'I have no doubt that Labour’s Business will help inform
and shape this debate as we move forward.'

Labour's Business think tank proposes a massive expansion of Young Enterprise

In a fascinating development, a key think tank, Labour's Business, has proposed a massive expansion of Young Enterprise.
The move comes in a pamphlet written by a team led by Alex Smith, a former director of Online Communications and Campaigns to Ed Miliband and internet entrepreneur Luke Bozier. It is endorsed in a foreword by Chuka Umunna MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
As a charity, we in no way endorse what the pamphlet has to say. But it is undoubtedly a notable contribution to the debate about how Britain is to promote enterprise and improve the life chances of the next generation. So we thought you would like to read what the document has to say about this organisation:

First, here's how Alex Smith and Luke Bozier introduce their pamphlet in Progress Magazine:

'....It is vital that we nurture curiosity about entrepreneurship in the early years and furnish young people with the skills to succeed. As well as improved enterprise education in the national curriculum, we should build a National Young Enterprise Programme. The existing Young Enterprise scheme is too often seen as a ‘nice-to-have’, but is not rooted in schools as a recognised part of the educational path.

'Instead, we should build on that successful scheme, and establish a national programme as a third available route alongside A-levels and apprenticeships, run by local authorities and local businesses. This would serve as a two-year mini-MBA for 16-18-year-olds, combining mentoring, team-building and management training with direct business and accounting experience and access to experimental start-up finance.

'It would unleash into our economy hundreds of youngsters each year who understand the technicalities of starting and running a business, and have had the opportunity to experiment with business ideas....'

Here is what the authors say in their pamphlet:

Our recommendations for the Labour Party include: making small enterprise a viable third option for school leavers through a commitment to a National Young Enterprise programme

Institutional vs cultural change

Too often Labour’s enterprise strategy resorted to institutional

change rather than the more substantive culture change that is
required to deliver a step change in entrepreneurial outcomes….
Enterprise education is (an) example. Gordon Brown
was passionate about this, from 1997 onwards, and rightly so.

Programmes like Young Enterprise are very effective at engaging
young people, outside the more traditional academic subjects;
and instilling a more entrepreneurial culture.

Brown’s closest colleagues remain committed: Ed Balls told me in 2005,
when he first became an MP, that enterprise education was one
of his top three policy priorities.

And yet, despite the combined support of Brown and Balls,
enterprise education did not take off as much as Labour intended
– partly because of resistance from the educational establishment,
but also because of the policy-making process. In
the late 1990s, Brown managed to persuade David Blunkett to
focus on enterprise education, but the total investment was a
fairly unimpressive, one-off £10 million investment.

Almost a decade later, the Treasury was still announcing occasional pots
of money for enterprise education. But it wasn’t transformational,
and it wasn’t integrated into the mainstream delivery of
the Education Department.

Labour was right to focus on enterprise education, but the
implementation of initiatives was far too piecemeal and marginal.
Now more than ever, with youth unemployment at crisis
proportions, young people in education need more focused
support on how to navigate the world of work.

This requires more co-ordinated action between the growth and education
agendas, and departments – and would be a fruitful area for
the Labour policy review, and the leadership, to focus on.

Luke Bozier writes about his personal experiences in Chapter Nine

Luke Bozier

I didn’t follow the conventional route from school,

through university and into a career. Between the age of 16, when I left formal education, and 18, I had three jobs, started a social enterprise and, towards the end of that period, started putting together my first commercial enterprise. My first job was as a junior computer programmer for a British dot-com company; then I ended up working for a jewellery manufacturer in the Barbican, managing the production line. I also had a stint at McDonald’s.

Like many teenagers forced to choose
their career paths at 16 or 18 I knew I wanted to do something unusual, but I didn’t know what that would be. I certainly didn’t want to spend two more years doing A-levels, and three years after that doing a degree. And an apprenticeship sounded to me like a relic from a by-gone era. This is a challenge for many school-leavers. We’ve been conditioned over the years to believe that the only real route to a successful career is via university – anything else is a failure.

The New Labour governments in particular, whether intentionally or not, hammered this mantra home in words and policy, and at the same time paid scant attention to the potential alternatives to a degree-led career. Britain has one of the least
successful vocational education systems in Europe, and our
apprentice system engages too few. While I fully understand
the aim behind getting 50% of school-leavers into university,
I believe it was a mistake to build a system in which young
people earn academic degrees in subjects that should be purely
vocational.

At the same time, I don’t believe a degree should be a requirement for a white-collar career such as accountancy. The proof is in the pudding, as the old adage goes, and we’re now seeing record numbers of degree-holders, fresh out of university, with no jobs and huge debts that will take decades to pay off. The sharp rise in tuition fees introduced by the Coalition Government will only exacerbate that paradox: why go through the effort and expense of university if there’s no guarantee of a
meaningful career at the end of it?

Labour’s attention, therefore, must be turned to how the political system can be used to provide good-quality opportunities and options for school-leavers. The current status quo, the choice between university and an apprenticeship, is, in our changing
economy, no longer fit for purpose on its own. It once was the case
that on leaving secondary school, armed with some good quality
GCSEs, a young person could find a junior level job straight away.

But the business community has for years now been vocal about
the poor quality of secondary level education, and in particular the
weak soft skills that type of education gives young people. So we
need new, inspiring and engaging options for 16 and 18-year-olds.

One scheme that the Labour Party should look to as it seeks solutions to these challenges is the “Young Enterprise” scheme.

Run by the charity founded by Sir Walter Salomon in 1963, Young Enterprise provides add-on learning opportunities for school-age children in various parts of the UK. Its aim, stated in its mission statement, is to “to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise”.

This is exactly the kind of attitude we need in our formal education system – on a national scale, supported by structured programmes, financing and mentorship – in order to equip and encourage our teenagers to take enterprise seriously as a career
option upon leaving school.

The existing Young Enterprise scheme – financed largely through corporate partnerships and private fundraising – is a fantastic programme which opens doors to thousands of young people.

But in order that the aims of the scheme are achieved throughout the UK, and made
available to all of our young people, we need a National Young
Enterprise Programme – rooted in schools as a recognised and
accredited third option on the educational path.

I started my first commercial enterprise when I was eighteen
years old. I met my business partner, Tim Shand, who has also
contributed to this pamphlet, at a global gathering of people
interested in the potential for information and communication
technology to change society for the better, in Switzerland in
2003.

We identified a niche in a market: governments wanted
to engage more meaningfully with young people, young people
were using the internet in a big way, yet governments weren’t
using the internet to engage with those young people. We decided
to try our luck and start a small consultancy firm. A week
before my nineteenth birthday, we signed our first contract,
with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, designing and
organising the first ever online government-citizen consultation
in the UK, possibly the world.

With that one contract, our company was born, and we managed to keep it going for a few years, providing similar services to other British government
agencies. The exercise was rewarding, it was fun, it provided me
with an income, and it gave me an outlet for my curiosity about

The Heritage Foods Young Enterprise team

technology and government, which grew over time.

That company no longer exists today, but it has led directly
and indirectly to further such ventures and work offers since.
Tim and I started the company without a penny of investment,
with no high-profile or well-connected board members, and
no promise of a contract or any previous significant business
experience. We learned everything on the job, including how to
run a company’s accounts, how to deal with clients, how to find
new clients and how to sell professional services.

My family found it a little strange that I was starting a company
rather than finding a ‘real job’. That general tone in the UK
toward risk-taking on enterprise is all too negative. If someone
has a business idea, and the energy to see it through to its logical
conclusion, the last thing they need is society looking down
its collective nose at him or her. Young people have so much
energy and creativity which is not currently being fully harnessed;
Labour, the party of opportunity and social mobility,
should encourage young people like that to have a go at starting
their own businesses as a means of achieving success.
But we can’t do that without seeking to change our educational
culture.

That’s why we need a new option for school-leavers, supported by government, to unleash young enterprise with the support of local schools, colleges and businesses.
At a time when youth unemployment is at an all time
high – indeed, even during the good times – encouraging 16,
17 and 18-year-olds to create jobs not just for themselves,
but potentially also for their peers, should be a high priority
for Labour. Particularly in deprived areas in our cities, where
young people are despondent about career prospects, schoolleavers
should be given the tools, structure, support, encouragement
and in some cases finance to start micro-enterprises,
for the benefit of themselves and their communities.
Indeed, Fresh Minds research (1) into the Young Enterprise
scheme shows that the development of business skills
through a formal programme leads to higher future earnings;
generally increased entrepreneurship; greater fulfillment at
work; and even an increase in the amount of voluntary work
undertaken by participants – all stated aims for the Labour
Party.

How would the NYE programme work

exactly?

First, we should recognise that there is always a risk in starting

a business of any kind. As others have remarked, it takes huge

determination, effort and hard work to take an idea through

the start-up process to the green-grass of business success.

Many businesses fail in their first year or two of operations.

Recognising this, and building that understanding into the

NYE programme structure is crucial to building widespread

support for such a scheme.

The stated aim of the NYE programme

would be to give 16 to 18-year-olds a chance, over a

structured period of two or three years, to create a sustainable

small business, providing them with their own livelihood and

an economic boost for the community.

Not every single entrant to the NYE programme will come out a small business

owner, but every participant would be set up for a career in

entrepreneurship or as a valuable staff member of an existing

company.

The NYE programme would comprise the following components:

▶▶business skills training;

▶▶mentorship and partnering with an established local business

person;

▶▶a timed and structured programme which takes school-leavers

through a journey of learning about business, building small

teams of entrepreneurs, business plan development, management

training and the design and launch of a real business;

▶▶access to seed finance;

▶▶at the end of the programme, a NYE diploma, which in time

would become as valuable to employers and businesses as

A-levels or a university degree, recognising the work of the

participants.

Initially, the programme would run as a pilot in a select

number of schools around the UK. Each participant school

would have an assigned member of staff who would be responsible

for identifying potential participants and enrolling them

in the programme. The programme itself would be run at colleges

and universities, most likely by business studies departments

in collaboration with local business people, accountants

and consultants. Each year the participant school would select

from among its student body a number of students who have

demonstrated creativity, energy or interest in enterprise, and

those students would then go into the entry process at the college

or university administering the programme.

The exact details and structure of the programme would

have to be devised in conjunction with business studies teachers,

business people and other stakeholders. However, we can

give a rough outline. The NYE programme would last either

two or three years, and would result in both a nationally recognised

qualification demonstrating the participant’s business

acumen and a number of real, sustainable micro-enterprises

run by a programme participant or small group of participants

joining together.

Stage 1 of the programme would be a fast-paced, intensive,

six- to nine-month mini-MBA-style crash course in business.

Participants would learn the hard skills required to start and

run a business, including accounting, corporate governance, the

legalities of forming a company, and so on. They would also

be exposed to more soft business areas, looking at innovation,

immersing themselves in success stories from around Britain

and around the world. Learning would be carried out in a variety

of ways: through lectures, text books and formal classes,

but also in group discussions designed to encourage innovative

thinking and open input. Participants would be encouraged to

source their own learning materials via the web, local business

people and other places.

Stage 2 would start to put to use the skills learned in stage

1, and begin to unleash some of the creativity of the group.

Participants would form small groups and begin to experiment

with business ideas. I’m not sure what the optimum time period

for this stage would be, but it should be at least six months.

The groups that form would be required to develop an initial

business plan very early on in this stage. They would then

go out into their communities and try to turn the plan into

a working enterprise, learning lessons along the way, and perfecting

their business plans, potentially abandoning their initial

ideas and trying something else. This stage would quickly

build on the skills learned in stage 1 and would get participants’

hands dirty with real enterprise early on.

Stage 3 brings the skills and experience from the previous

two stages together. Here participants can choose to work

alone or in a small group. It’s in this stage that the seed for

the final business project will be planted. Here is where

participants will work on devising and starting an enterprise

which, by design, would be sustainable beyond the end of their

programme. Each participant would have access to a defined

amount of money, which they can pool as a group or use on

their own. This potential for pooling seed funds would incentivise

teamwork. Money would be released in chunks, through

a Dragon’s Den style contest, where the group or individual

would have to persuade members of the faculty and one or two

local business people to release seed funds.

The business plan would be perfected and executed, and

participants would be required to find an already established

business person to come on board as a mentor in return for a

share in the company’s equity.

This is a rough outline of what the NYE programme could

look like. It would bring in creative and energetic people, young

people interested in creating their own paths, and give them

the knowledge, skills and support they need to become entrepreneurs.

Thousands of participants a year going through a

programme like this – delivered in schools and colleges and

in collaboration with further and higher education institutions

and graduate schemes such as Entrepreneur First – would result

in higher numbers of enterprising young people who are

willing to take risks but also equipped with the know-how to

start and run a successful business.

How would the NYE programme be funded?

The NYE programme would require significant funding, even

at the pilot level. There are a number of potential ways to do

this, using either one or a mixture of the following:

▶▶The student debt model, which is used to fund the majority

of university students, albeit on a much smaller scale. This

would provide for each NYE participant to have a £10,000

loan (or a different figure, lower or higher as appropriate)

allocated for their seed funding requirements throughout

the programme. The loans could be provided by the government,

or by commercial banks and guaranteed by the

government. The debt would take on a similar structure to

student debt and be paid off when a participant earned a

certain minimum salary or income from their company.

▶▶A bond financing programme, which would provide an opportunity

for companies to give something back to their

communities. This would allow a local company or a national

company, or even individual investors, to invest in the

programme by buying bonds with a guaranteed income over

a minimum time period. The rate of interest would be low,

and the income would be provided by having a dividend paid

back by all of the companies created by the programme over

a set period of time. This provides an interesting enterpriseled

corporate social responsibility outlet for companies with

large surpluses of cash.

▶▶A high net worth sponsorship programme. Wealthy individuals

could be asked to donate money into local NYE programme

as a way of boosting opportunities for young people.

This could be of potential interest to entrepreneurs who

have done well themselves through enterprise. In return for

their sponsorship of a programme at a specific college, that

institution’s programme could be named after them. This

could also apply to large companies that wish to sponsor an

entire programme (without investing through the bond financing

option described above. A mixture of these funding options would be most attractive,

providing a bit of risk for the participant (through the

student debt model), the potential for people to earn a return

on investing in the programme (through the bond financing

model) and an option for socially minded wealthy individuals

and companies to give something back (through the high net

worth sponsorship model).

Conclusion

I have outlined in this chapter an idea which I passionately believe

would boost not just the career chances for young, creative

people all across Britain, but the nature of the British economy

itself. It can only be a good thing in this globalised, highly enterprise-

driven world to be creating thousands or tens of thousands

of new young entrepreneurs each year (whether or not they succeed

with their early ventures). As they grow older, these young

entrepreneurs will be able to apply the skills and risk-taking attitudes

they learned through the NYE programme to a range of

problems – creating new businesses through the ages, and helping

existing business to be more successful.

Labour has an opportunity to embrace such a programme,

which not only has the potential to boost the economy overall,

but also would spread the opportunities afforded by entrepreneurship

to the many, not the few. What better way for a

compassionate government, and a compassionate, enterpriseminded

Labour Party, to give young people a kick-start than to

encourage and support them in creating their own livelihoods.

Read the full report from Labour's Business http://www.laboursbusiness.org.uk/.

(1) Freshminds research: Business Education Survey 2011 http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/resources/gen/YEFreshMindsforj.pdf

Young Enterprise website, “About us”, September 27, 2011;http://bit.ly/sh9JEY

(accessed November 2011)

Why it is so important to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs

2011-11-14T02:15:00.000-08:00

Richard Branson asked Young Enterprise's Interim Chief Executive Catherine Marchant to write a blog for his international company's website, to mark Global Entrepreneurship week.

Richard Branson

Why, he asked Catherine, was it so important to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs? And why could we not simply rely on young people to evolve naturally into the dynamic business people that we need to revive the British economy?

Her response was to point out some examples of how Young Enterprise's philosophy of 'learning by doing' has been the key ingredient in the success of some impressive entrepreneurial success stories....

By Catherine Marchant

A very senior Cabinet Minister put the case against educating the next generation of entrepreneurs rather bluntly the other day.

‘’You can’t teach innovation by following a curriculum,’’ he said with an air of finality.

It was an odd remark from several points of view.

Not least because the Government officially supports Global Entrepreneurship Week UK - whose manifesto declares that ‘’Enterprise education doubles the chances of business success.’’

There was another reason the remark seemed a little off-target.

Young Enterprise does not submit young people to a rigid course of study. Rather, young people are inspired by business mentors to ‘learn by doing’ by routes that purely academic approaches could never achieve.

So are entrepreneurs born or made? Let’s admit it. There's no straightforward answer within academic or business circles. But most experts do agree that anyone can develop useful traits and hone key skills.

And why not ask the young people who have taken the plunge into working for themselves? How important they believe enterprise education was to them?

Adam Soliman meets 'Charbrew's' suppliers

Take Adam Soliman. He realised the down turn would bar him from his intended career in merchant banking. So he joined Young Enterprise’s Start-Up Programme in 2009 to turn his tea-drinking hobby into a profitable business. Lancashire-based Charbrew now supplies 400 Sainsbury’s stores with varieties such as Tropical Rooibos, a blend of South African Redbush tea mixed with cardamom, coconut, orange peel and lemongrass. He is exporting to the US and Europe.

Adam says: ‘Young Enterprise gave me great insight into the initial structure of setting up a business, registering a company, setting up bank accounts, partnership agreements, trading terms etc. It also demonstrated to me how much time and effort is required to make a business work and especially on a collaborative group level.’

Justin Turner of Carrot Media, a Newcastle Upon Tyne web design agency, agrees: ‘I took a huge amount out of the programme. You get real-life experience. Even if you don’t want to start a business, an employer will know you have got skills that aren’t coming out of the education system.’

Carrot Media logo

Jo Jackson believes launching her independent fashion label Beyond the Valley would have been impossible without enterprise education. She said: ‘’Running a company at school gave me the confidence to produce ideas that would otherwise have just remained in my head.’’

Companies think it is important, too.

Jo Jackson

Seventy five per cent of firms feel the British education system is not equipping young people with the skills they need to enter the workforce, according to a Young Enterprise poll of major employers by Freshminds. They included Cadbury, HSBC, BT, GKN, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Cisco.

Around 188 companies have signed the Young Enterprise Charter demanding that employability and entrepreneurship education be placed within the statutory curriculum in UK schools.

And there is even more tangible evidence that enterprise education works.

Fresh Minds found Young Enterprise alumni were twice as likely to start their own businesses. And by age 30 they earn £40,000 to £45,000, a third more than their peers.

To read this blog on the Virgin site go to: http://bit.ly/snFsJ3

Find out more about Young Enterprise:

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/about_us

Can entrepreneurs really be created?

2011-10-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

As Global Entrepreneurship Week gets under way, Young Enterprise's Interim Chief Executive. Catherine Marchant, presents some sparkling examples of why it is so important for the UK and the world to educate the next generation of young business talent...

I am often asked: are entrepreneurs born or made?

By Catherine Marchant

In other words, are some people naturally inclined to launch themselves into business? Or can enterprise courses, such as the programmes that Young Enterprise provided to 250,000 young people last year, make you a trading genius or a corporate superstar?

As Global Entrepreneurship Week dominates the headlines question is in many people’s minds.

Despite umpteen studies by academic experts nobody has yet been able to come up with a complete answer. It's probably more complicated that simply nature or nurture. One of the keys seems to be to start young. What drives some of us to become entrepreneurs is probably a mixture of qualities and circumstances.

But our 50 years of experience has told us one thing. Certain crucial key entrepreneurial skills can – and must- be learned if the businesses are to become successful and long-lived. Which is why the bespoke mentoring prize of up to £40,000 being offered to each of the Ambition Axa Award winners is such a fantastic prize.

Rather than adding to the sky-high pile of research to resolve this question, we thought we would let the words of young entrepreneurs speak for themselves. Here are three interviews with three alumni of Young Enterprise. All of whom stress the importance of the guidance and support they received in turning their entrepreneurial instincts in to real businesses.

Alex Simmons

Alex Simmonds

Now a successful DJ and Event promoter, Alex Simmons’ first business was a Young Enterprise company making CD clocks and running school events.
“My school life was very interesting; I wasn’t your model pupil. From the age of 13 I went off the rails, I was a nice lad at heart but quite cheeky and school didn’t really give me any challenges.’’
He said academic knowledge never excited him, but all that changed when he got the chance to do things.
‘’Young Enterprise is the only thing that got through to me and that says a lot about the Company Programme. For some people it is actually the practical application that will get them through, I was never interested in reading, writing or listening to someone, because I thought I always knew more. As soon as I got the opportunity to experience real responsibility and real challenges, I thrived on it,’’ Alex said.
He added: “Having the chance to run a company at school taught me a hell of a lot about communications and about promotions which set me in good stead for what I do now. The main thing I learnt was teamwork, and that I wasn’t always right.
‘’I am a very strong minded individual and I have always been the kind of person who thinks my way or the high way, what I learnt was that teamwork and listening to others is vital. Some people who might be a bit quiet still have good ideas and you have listen to where they are coming from. ‘’
“I have done some silly things in my life, and have some big regrets, but if it wasn’t for Young Enterprise I would not be where I am today.’’

Jo Jackson

Jo Jackson

Now a leading brand strategist and entrepreneur, Jo Jackson’s first business was a Young Enterprise company that sold customized ceramic mugs to her 16 year old GCSE student peers. Jo firmly believes that her current entrepreneurial successes wouldn’t have been possible without the experience she gained through the Programme:

“Running a company at school helped me develop the confidence to produce ideas that would otherwise have just remained in my head. It was my first venture into working as a team and realising how many different facets there are to creating a well-rounded business. The biggest piece of advice I can give is don’t be afraid of making mistakes – they actually provide some of the best learning experiences. Just always make sure you have a back-up plan in case something does fail!”

Following a degree in Graphic Design from London’s Central St. Martins, she set up the independent fashion label and design store Beyond the Valley with fellow graduates Kristjana Williams and Kate Harwood. Despite a minimal budget and no formal business training other than what Jo had learned through Young Enterprise, her instinct for creativity and guerrilla marketing helped Beyond the Valley become an international success.

Phil Batty

Phil Batty

Phil Batty founded his company ‘Force-7’ in May 2006, as part of a Young Enterprise program with twelve other pupils at Hymers College in Hull.

It is a marketing company that has turned convention on its head. It is staffed entirely by 16-24 year-olds and yet it provides a full-service marketing, research and digital agency, specialising in youth communication.

Now the company, which won the HSBC Innovation Awards in 2007, is a successful business with 11 full-time and 21 part time-employees. The company has continually grown, now holding several high-profile clients including the British Red Cross, British Heart Foundation and PDSA.

Phil said: ‘There were several challenges I faced while trying to setting up Force-7 ltd.

‘Firstly, the transition from a young enterprise company to one that could be viewed as a successful company in its own right was tricky and the balancing of friendships with the ambition to drive the company forward added an extra dimension to the challenge.’

‘Secondly, when I started taking Force-7 on following the end of school, I persuaded my parents to let me take a gap-year by telling them that I had got a job at a different marketing firm. In reality though what I was doing was continuing to develop Force-7. I didn’t end up telling them for the better part of the year, until my dad thought he was going to meet with who he thought was my boss!!’

‘When I started, I had never studied business, economics or anything of the sort and I was doubtful whether I would end up in the business world, but the hands-on, style of learning that Young Enterprise provided, furnished me the skills that allowed me to take Force-7 from concept to profitable company. I learnt to pitch, to sell, the essentials of communications and managing a team and most of all it inspired me and gave me the drive to become an entrepreneur.’

What it all shows is that, if entrepreneurs are not born, they can certainly be made more successful with the right help!

Find out more about Young Enterprise:

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/

Why do 75% of companies surveyed say British education fails to give young people the right skills for work?

2011-10-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the riots that wreaked havoc in our towns and cities, what should the nation do?


By John May, Young Enterprise Chief Executive

How are we going to instil a greater sense of personal and civic purpose in our children and young people?

What more can be done to give them the kinds of skills and attitudes that will enhance their employability and get them ready for the world of work? These are some of the questions that Young Enterprise set out to answer when we commissioned some research to discover why a million young people are currently unemployed in this country.

We asked the consultancy Freshminds to draw up a comprehensive, in-depth online survey. It was conducted among business leaders from 28 of the most important and influential UK companies and professional bodies.

Survey conducted by Freshminds consultancy

The survey respondent group was drawn from Young Enterprise’s corporate supporters. This group includes Kraft, HSBC, BT, GKN, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, Cisco, Citi, Santander and the Chartered Institutes of Accounting and Marketing.

Together these organisations account for more than 700,000 employees or members. With 29 million people employed in the UK, our sample represents a huge 2.4% chunk of the British economy.

The results showed that what can only be described as an employability crisis looms large in employers’ minds:

• Twenty-one major companies (approximately 75%) felt that the British education system is not equipping young people with the right skills for them to enter the workforce.

• Sixteen (59%) felt that the education system was poor at developing young people’s entrepreneurial skills.

• Eighteen (64%) thought that the education system was poor at developing financial skills among young people.

BUT

• Seventeen (61%) said they felt Young Enterprise’s activities made a significant difference in filling these gaps and preparing young people for the future.

• Twenty-four (89%) said they thought it was ‘very important’ for business to be involved in young people’s education.

When asked what, if any, skills young people lacked that they needed to be employable, comments included:

’Too many to list! Commercial awareness, written and spoken English to a high enough level, technical skills, inter-personal skills, you name it.’’

‘’Practical application skills to link what they learn academically at school with real life skills in the commercial world.’’

’The soft skills to enable them to think outside of the box. They need mentors and role models to see why people are successful.’’

‘’Acceptance of hierarchy…attention to detail, willingness to be of service to others.’’

‘’The skills that Young Enterprise provides.’’

My colleague, Young Enterprise chairman Ian Smith, has said that the research is ‘a wake-up call.’

It’s true. Young recruits are presenting themselves for interview without the vital employability skills that employers look for – such as attendance, punctuality, motivation and a general “can do attitude.”

The consequences for young British people are dire. Many businesses are using the lack of employability skills they see among school leavers as well as graduates as an excuse to employ foreign workers or shift work abroad.

Narrow curriculum 'could damage economy'

The situation is getting worse because the Department for Education is adopting an alarmingly narrow focus on academic skills and exams which will make it less likely that students emerge from education with these employability skills.

There is also a distressing tendency for executives in business meetings to complain and attempt to blame their own failures on the attitude of the British worker, and particularly young people entering employment.

Ian Smith and I have a very simple message to give to business: don’t just sit in meetings moaning about the attitude of British workers; get yourself and your employees out amongst young people as business mentors.


Young Enterprise chairnman Ian Smith

So what else is to be done? Well, the employers who took part in our survey believe the Government needs to adjust its approach. Companies want business, employability and entrepreneurship education to be placed within the statutory National Curriculum.

They also think Ministers should encourage businesses to send staff into schools to help young people learn about the world of work. If we do, we can create a step change in the quality of recruits our schools are turning out.

One thing is pretty clear: the education system must concern itself in future with more than simply exams.

I will spare you the advertisement. But I would just point out that, with 50 years’ of experience behind us, Young Enterprise is perfectly positioned to address these problems.

We help 250,000 young people aged 4 to 25 learn about business and the world of work in classrooms, colleges and universities. They do this under the guidance of 5,000 business volunteers from 3,500 companies. We work in every area of the country, including many of the most deprived neighbourhoods. With us, young people ‘learn by doing’ in ways that could never be achieved by academic approaches alone.

In other words, we have the mechanism for producing the innovative and enterprising young people the UK needs to ensure its future prosperity. The only question is, is it big enough?

Read full details of the Freshminds survey: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/resources/gen/YEFreshMindsforj.pdf

Find out more about the Young Enterprise Charter:

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/about_us/charter

For more information about Young Enterprise please visit: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/

Does forcing young people into narrow moulds of academic rigour really help them succeed?

2011-10-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

By Ian Braithwaite
Young Enterprise
Communications
Intern

So, I’m the new intern at Young Enterprise and over the past week I’ve been absorbing a lot about the organisation.

One of my tasks has been to collate some of the past success stories from the long-running Young Enterprise Company Programme. Reading through these various stories I have been astonished at how groups of young people from across the country have striven above and beyond what they thought they could achieve, to form inspiring start-up businesses, many of which have already made steps towards becoming business ventures that could last long into the future.

The Tripz 'n' Tipz logo

Take a group that has come through the company programme this year, their business ‘Tripz n’ Tipz’ was started barely a year ago, through their school in the North East of England which runs the Young Enterprise program. Now their business, which twins a fun travel game with facts about your destination, has just signed a lucrative deal with the holiday company Thompson.

Reading through examples like this, and realising how beneficial the experiences have been both for the young people involved but also for the volunteers, has made me wonder:

Why doesn’t every school in the country run an enterprise education program?

Members of thE COmpany prepare their trade
stand at the final of HSBC Young Enterprise
Innovation Awards 2011

And, it seems, the answer to this is simple: Because the values of enterprise education aren’t regarded as important within our current curriculums. The narrow focus of schools is towards exams in the core academic subjects. This is how schools are assessed and I do not blame them for attempting to reach these targets.

But the question I must ask is; whether forcing young people into these narrow moulds of academic rigour is truly helping to establish a generation of school leavers and graduates who are not only equipped with the skills, but also excited by the prospect of venturing into the world of work when they shed the safety of the education system.

During some of my research this week I stumbled across a video of an online talk given by Cameron Herold, at one of the famous TED conferences. During this talk Cameron talks a lot about what can be done to improve enterprise education from an early age:

Cameron Herold
Founder of Backpocket COO
a business coaching firm

Once you make your way through the self-congratulatory, clichéd overtones of the talk, you realise that Cameron does have some interesting points to make. He points out that at present, society is naturally geared towards producing academically narrow schoolchildren aimed towards traditional careers that are perceived as ‘good jobs’.

These thoughts then further raise questions: What can we do about this? Is there anything we even should do about this? Is the place for teaching children about enterprise and entrepreneurship in the classroom, or is it at home? Are the skills that an entrepreneur require inherent or can they be taught?

Cameron argues that encouraging a child to be self-reliant and responsible financially from a young age can instil core entrepreneurship skills and values that can be carried forward throughout their life. His talk very much centres on entrepreneurship as an education that can help a child move against what Cameron perceives a ‘standard’ career. Although he believes that an enterprise education can be taught alongside a formal education, he gives the distinct impression that the skills he wants to instil in children are most useful only to those who may become entrepreneurs. Cameron says ‘I think we should be raising entrepreneurs instead of lawyers’.

From what I can see, this is not what Young Enterprise thinks. Yes it agrees that enterprise education is not featured in the school curriculum as it should be. Yes, it agrees that not all children fit in the same mould academically and therefore neither will they in the career they choose.

But my impression is that Young Enterprise believes enterprise education instils values and skills in young people that are as crucial to a young person’s success as GCSEs or A levels, that the communication, teamwork, creative skills they develop are as important, whether they go on to start a small business, or be a lawyer, a dentist, a doctor, work within a vast organisation or any other career.

The skills that young people are developing through Young Enterprise pervade all areas of their curricular work as well as teaching them transferable, ‘real-world’, practical business skills. In fact in a recent survey by Ofsted, the school standards watchdog, it was found that ‘Extra-curricular activities, such as Young Enterprise ...were a feature of those schools where the curriculum was judged to be good or outstanding'.

Young Enterprise seems to view enterprise education not only as something that, if added to the curriculum, would help develop entrepreneurs. Rather that enterprise education is something vital, immediate and useful that is missing from the current curriculum, which would aid young people to develop and thrive in their academic lives as well as in their future career, whatever that may be.

For these reasons next week Young Enterprise is submitting the ‘Young Enterprise Charter to Parliament’ encouraging the Government to reconsider its current narrow position on enterprise education.

Watch Cameron on TED:
http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_herold_let_s_raise_kids_to_be_entrepreneurs.html

If you would like to sign in support or to read more about the Charter follow the link below:

http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/about_us/charter

Any other thoughts about the role of Enterprise Education within the classroom? Let us know!!

What do you do when 13 year olds expect to be billionaire megastars?

2011-09-30T01:47:00.000-07:00

David Beckham:
13 year olds aspire
to his wealth and celebrity

We are often asked: what is it like to become a Young Enterprise volunteer?'' Challenging,'' ''surprising,'' ''terribly hard work,'' and ''incredibly rewarding,'' are some of the phrases we often hear. But rather than just telling you, we thought we would ask one of the thousands of amazing mentors who sacrifice their own free time to write, unedited, of her own experience.

By Learn to Earn
volunteer mentor
Helen Jones

Helen Jones helped deliver the ''Learn To Earn'' programme in Hertfordshire which confronts 12-16 year olds with the reality of what a ''dream lifestyle'' costs, the range of career choices, the task of earning a salary and dealing with job interviews. It explores the nature of real success in life and the costs of leaving education early. She found herself wrestling with the challenge of giving a sense of perspective on life and work to a gym hall full of 13 year olds who aspire to the millionaire liefestyles of Simon Cowell, David Beckham and Richard Branson.

Helen writes: More than ever young people are advised that it is experience that employers are looking for when recruiting not just good grades. With this in mind I knew that I wanted experience in the charitable or educational sector so I jumped at the chance to work with Young Enterprise when the opportunity arose.

Mega bucks

'Living in a Dreamworld' -
part of the programme literature which helps
students assess the cost of leaving education early

Browsing the internet in my post-Uni time I stumbled upon Young Enterprise and saw that they worked in schools with all ages of young people. Bingo! Exactly what I was looking for. I knew that I wanted work that helped individuals so Young Enterprise seemed a good way to get involved. I found contacting the Young Enterprise team was made easy through the volunteering links on the website and I soon enlisted myself to help at a school event. Being a nationwide company Young Enterprise could offer me voluntary work near my home and so I visited a local secondary school in Hertfordshire.

The programme is available
around the country. Here are Year 9 students in
Hounslow doing''Learn to Earn''

'Mega bucks business people such as Simon Cowell, David Beckham and Richard Branson were the names buzzing around the gym hall. It seems every Year 8 child (aged 13) knows who they are! It was clear that the children looked up and aspired to these kinds of role models....'

The team ran a “Learn to Earn” workshop which was aimed at encouraging children to recognise their aspirations, but importantly balance this alongside the reality of the jobs available to them. The course was very much an eye opener for the children in terms of salaries also.

They were surprised by the salaries

Beginning the morning with a warm up quiz, the who’s who of mega bucks business people, meant that Simon Cowell, David Beckham and Richard Branson were the names buzzing around the gym hall. It seems every Year 8 child knows who they are! It was clear that the children looked up and aspired to these kinds of role models, but what about nurses, graphic designers, builders or zoo keepers? How much do they earn and what qualifications do they need to have to do their jobs well? These were the kinds of issues we began exploring with the kids.

An alternative to megastardom: penguin keeper
doing the annual stocktake at
London Zoo

The most interesting task I found was asking the group to write a list of their wants and needs in everyday life from bills and food to clothes and leisure activities. These were then mapped to the kinds of job they would need to have in order to sustain their aspired lifestyle. Admittedly, some aspirations had to be re-assessed.

'do I need a swimming pool?'

Sadly having a swimming pool and a cinema as a “need” was subsequently disregarded as an unnecessary outgoing! Particularly with the rise of tuition fees in University it seems the ability for young people to assess their needs and wants in order to live within their means is paramount. This kind of ability is a crucial life skill especially in today’s economic climate.

Helen found even 13 year olds
easpire to emulate
billionaire Richard Branson

The value of Young Enterprise was apparent from my experience. The charity nurtures aspirations, whether big or small, by providing the information for these to be achieved. Highlighting aspects of the working world the children consider things they would not have necessarily thought about previously.

Running through to lunch time Young Enterprise provided a structured lesson plan and fun activities for the children to discuss. It is brilliant to hear children talk about their aspirations and being there to encourage their progress towards achieving these goals is definitely the most rewarding part of the volunteering I have been involved in.

A realistic ambition? David and Victoria Beckham's Mansion with
swimming pool in Los Angeles

To wrap up the session we ended on a note of advice for the following year. I was also asked to give a short talk to the children about choosing their GCSE subjects. What were my top tips? Remembering how I felt when I was in their position I know I would have loved to hear advice from other students and this is why the work Young Enterprise does is so important in schools.

Although initially daunting to have a whole year of students waiting for you to speak, the team were lovely, making me feel both relaxed and supported. They are highly accommodating and for those of you who are not public speakers I would still urge you to get involved with Young Enterprise. There are many other capacities for volunteering and the charity values any time you dedicate to them.

How can I sum up my experience with Young Enterprise? Well, it has been fantastic. I love the ethos of the charity and the people involved. I think it is so important to aspire and invest in children, they are our collective future. Not only have I helped others, but as a bonus I have gained invaluable experience with an educational charity. I would strongly recommend anyone thinking about working with children or just wanting to give something positive to others to enquire with Young Enterprise.

'It is so important to invest in children'

Just as I urged the children to be proactive when thinking about how to prepare for the working world, I also want to extend this invitation to those of you reading this. Be active in your local community and definitely give volunteering a go with Young Enterprise.

If you want to volunteer with Young Enterprise click here: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/feedback.html

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Why you need education AND experience in the world of work

2011-09-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

Students celebrate outstanding A Level results at Denbigh School, Milton Keynes

I would not trade in my education for anything. It has formed my mind and character, enhanced my ability to enjoy the experience of living and enriched my understanding of other people.

By John May

I revere education as the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. But these days, as young people look at the relentless rise in the dole queues, they might be forgiven for thinking that formal education is one of the biggest scams around.

Impressive exam results

Despite so many schools boasting ever-more-impressive exam results and a growing community of universities minting degrees, the perceived value of education is, regrettably, falling on the jobs market. Once the badge of real achievement, formal education, in itself, is no longer a passport to a successful and prosperous life.

The Ambition Awards logo:
Young Enterprise is judging the
enterprise category

So it was with a chilly sense of recognition that I turned to the results of a poll of 1,000 businesses conducted by OnePoll for the Axa Ambition Awards, supported by Young Enterprise. The research threw up the startling finding that 80.8% of employers would forgo some A-Levels if a candidate had good work experience.

Hands-on

What is more, 31.19% were willing to forgo as many as two A-levels if the applicant had the right hands-on credentials. It may seem an obvious statement, but I believe that experience counts for more than ever these days. If I am asked, I tell young people that it is not a question of ‘either’ education ‘or’ experience. You emphatically need both.

The point is this… Employers automatically expect high standards of English, maths and science. Having a good basic education under your belt is a given. It’s just that these days there are so many young people on the jobs market with excellent qualifications that academic skills are simply not enough. I would even go as far as to say that, unless one wants to work in a highly regulated occupation like medicine or law, I am not sure that formal education can be seen as a prerequisite.

Versaleaf from Alleyne's School in the West Midlands
worked with experienced business mentors
in Young Enterprise Company Programme

But having relevant work experience, increasingly, is. This is illustrated in the poll by the statistic showing that 58.4% of employers used work experience to ‘differentiate between candidates.’ It really is stunning that ‘character and personality’ was the most important factor for 60.2% of employers when hiring entry-level staff, followed by 54.6% who cited ‘experience in sector’ and eagerness to learn (52.1%). Formal qualifications came relatively low down the list. A-levels were important for 14.2%, a degree for 22.2 % and GCSEs for 19.1% of employers.

Stunning

Another telling number is that 59.1% of employers believed that graduates are not equipped with appropriate work skills when leaving education. A hefty 62.5% said they felt relevant work experience was becoming more important. Obviously, Young Enterprise only gets involved in commissioning such research in our never-ceasing efforts to understand what is happening in the business world and how young people relate to it. So how does the concept of ‘relevant work experience’ relate to what we do? Well, in many ways our work offers young people the chance to find something they love doing and learn as much about it as they can while still at school, college and university.

Secret saviours created by Young Enterprise

After 50 years of Young Enterprise in Britain, a million graduates of our Company Programme, who got the chance to run their own firms for a year, are out there. They have been christened the ‘secret saviours’ of the British economy.

Lucid Group mentor helping a team from
Urmston Grammar School
in the Young Enterprise Company Programme

The greatest success stories I have ever come across always seem to involve people who got the chance to work out exactly what they wanted to do and felt a passion for it by the time they left secondary school or university. Young Enterprise offers them the chance to find out what that is. They ‘learn by doing,’ with the help and guidance of mentors from real businesses, in a way that purely academic approaches would never succeed in doing. And when they present themselves to employers, or opt to set up their own businesses, they are much better prepared for the challenges of real life.

Don't abandon formal education

Before Ofsted comes knocking at my door, let me say loudly: I am not calling on our nation’s youth to abandon formal education. But in the modern age we must accept that without experience of the world of work, starting in the classroom, formal education can become at worst truly irrelevant.

More information on the awards and details on how to apply are available on the Ambition Axa Awards website: www.ambitionaxaawards.com
The deadline for completed applications is Friday 14 October 2011

A million secret saviours of the British economy

2011-09-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

By John May

As the Ambition AXA Awards work on unearthing some talented treasures among our young population, it seems like a good opportunity to shine a spotlight on a hidden force at work in the British economy.
A million budding business people have passed through Young Enterprise’s Company Programme and they are out there turning the wheels of national prosperity.
Their existence is sometimes ruefully referred to as the ‘best kept secret of the UK education system’ and so I propose to use this blog to highlight these extraordinary young people and let you hear some of their voices. I confess I have an ulterior motive. I want to see enterprise education being expanded in classrooms.
Inspiration
This subject has come to mind because I know that young people across the country are currently rushing to submit their entries before the October 14 deadline for the Ambition AXA Awards. I hope the stories of the young people I am about to relate will serve as an inspiration to potential entrants to the competition as they hasten to fill out their forms.
Every year, under the Young Enterprise Company Programme and the associated Start-Up Programme in universities, more than 30,000 15 to 25-year-olds get the chance to run their own real firms for 12 months with the guidance of volunteers from 3,500 companies. Many alumni go on to outstanding entrepreneurial success and, as I hope to prove to you in this piece, they are making a striking contribution to reviving the UK’s fortunes.
Examples speak for themselves.

Adam Soliman meets some of his suppliers

Take Newcastle University student Adam Soliman. Realising the downturn would bar him from a career in high finance, he got help from Young Enterprise in 2009 to turn his hobby of tea drinking into a business. Frustrated with the ‘bland and bitter’ range of leaves on offer, he launched his own importer and blender under the brand name Charbrew, based in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire.

Today his firm supplies 400 Sainsbury’s stores with varieties such as Strawberry Cream and Tropical Rooibos, a blend of South African Redbush tea mixed with cardamom, coconut, orange peel and lemongrass. Last year he won contracts to supply Lakeland and Booths stores and he has just started selling overseas such as to US chain TJ Maxx and French grocer Casino. With turnover heading towards £500,000 this year he said: “This is a seven day a week job for me now. I am constantly on the go. It’s growing market and lots more people are interested in different types of tea these days.”

Nick Troen and Frank Yeung, who went through the Company Programme in 2002, are now heading for a turnover of £2 million after spotting the popularity of Mexican fast food while on a trip to California. They set up their first ‘Poncho 8’ outlet in the City of London in 2009 and have since added two more London restaurants in Soho and Spitalfields. Nick said: “Young Enterprise sparked off our interest in business. I’ll never forget the mad rush of the first day of trading and the thrill of selling out of stock.’’

Ayrshire-based educational book publisher, Giglets (an old Scots name meaning laughing children), first emerged in 2007 as a Young Enterprise Scotland project created by a group of teenagers in a secondary school. Among them was Craig Johnstone, now managing director, whose dream it is to be the next Richard Branson,and Multimedia Director Tom Brodie-Browne. Their books are based around the adventures of lovable character Tam O’Haggis.

Justin Tuner, Managing Director of Carrot Media, a web design agency based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, said it was ‘fantastic’ to find that the business he started as part of a Young Enterprise Start Up programme became his full time job. “I took a huge amount out of the programme. You get real life experience of what is possible. Even if you are not thinking of starting your own business your employer will understand that you have skills that just aren’t coming out of the education system.’’

Other senior Young Enterprise Alumni endorse Justin’s view.

Transatlantic rower Debra Searle

Emma Pike, now Vice President of Industry Relations at Sony, said: “The most important skill that I learned was team work.’ James Evans, publisher and founder of Firstcar Magazine, said the main tip he picked up was the ability to ‘think outside the box.” Businesswoman and solo trans-Atlantic Rower Debra Searle MBE said: “I learned more about business through taking part in Young Enterprise than I did in two years of A-level economics. I set up two limited companies while in my 20s and was not at all nervous about doing so.”
The self-styled entrepreneur, writer, geek and foodie Steve Parks said: “Because of Young Enterprise I now run five different businesses.” Duncan Andrews, who founded Aylesford-based general bathroom distributor Qualitex Supplies in 1991 said: ‘The experience was extremely beneficial in developing my own personal confidence and business awareness.”
Truly enterprising

All the young people I mentioned above are truly enterprising. They have the potential to go to the very top. In their various ways, they demonstrate the ambition, leadership ability, capacity for innovation and the dedication to provide excellent customer service that has given their businesses outstanding potential for growth.

These are all qualities which will be necessary to win the enterprise category of the Ambition AXA Awards competition. Let battle commence!

Why not apply for the Ambition AXA Awards today?

https://www.ambitionaxaawards.com/apply

Employees need a 'can-do' attitude - but so do businesses, writes Young Enterprise Chairman Ian Smith in...

2011-08-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

'I am utterly fed up of sitting in meetings listening to people blaming their own failures on the poor work ethic of some staff or potential recruits' Photo: Alamy
As dole queues rise across the UK, employers are complaining that they can't find people willing and able to work. It is a familiar refrain. The favoured term this time around is "employability".

It appeared in the anguished discussion about the future of communities involved in and affected by the recent riots. It even features in the national debate about the growing number students with degrees who are struggling to find graduate-level work.

Ian Smith

'Employability is not just a buzzword'

When employers deploy this term they are not simply indulging themselves with the latest management buzzword. It is a concept that has profound implications for the future of Britain's workforce. After all, every potential employee faces an "employability" test – if your skills and behaviour don't live up to the expectations of your employer then you are shown the door.

Employers' groups used to highlight the poor basic academic and/or practical skills of candidates as the reason for not hiring British job applicants. But now the consistent excuse for looking outside the UK is behaviour and particularly "attitude". Increasingly, senior managers in big businesses point to this failure as justification for moving work abroad or to defend hiring foreign workers to do it instead.


Education Secretary Michael Gove

On skills, the Government has shown it is aware and willing to address the failure of basic learning. Thursday's GCSE results were encouraging and the Department of Education is focusing more closely on key academic subjects in the curriculum. Universal literacy and numeracy is vital – there are very few low-skilled manual labour jobs left.

'Our society is letting young people down'

Yet Education Secretary Michael Gove's shift back to traditional subjects and exams runs the risk of downplaying other valuable learning styles.

What it also misses is the crucial action that is needed to address attitude and behaviour. Here society as a whole, rather than the state, is letting young people down.

If the "attitude" of potential British recruits is deemed unacceptable by so many employers, who do they expect will fix this? I am utterly fed up of sitting in meetings listening to people blaming their own failures on the poor work ethic of some staff or potential recruits.

Iconic image of the London riots

'Some companies neither understand nor care about their responsibilities to the communities they serve and where their employees live...others do and encourage their staff to volunteer.'

It is clear to me that some companies neither understand nor care about their responsibilities to the communities they serve and where their employees live. They moan about the poor attitude, attendance, punctuality, motivation and a general lack of "can do", particularly of young people entering employment.
Yet more enlightened British employers and many overseas multinationals overcome the failings of our educational system by paying to develop their employees.

Amy Parkes, a Young Enterprise business adviser

They also understand they have a responsibility to the community and encourage their staff to volunteer. The charity I chair, Young Enterprise, could not exist without tens of thousands of employees who gave up time last year to act as Young Enterprise business mentors in schools, colleges and universities.

"Attitude" lessons can't be inserted into the National Curriculum. Yet attitude is infectious. It can't be taught, but it can be caught. Smart employers know that the volunteers they release into schools to inspire young people bring that inspiration back to the workplace.
So we need more enlightened employers to restore those lost links between workplaces and schools and the long-term unemployed. We also need the Education Department to recognise the value of business volunteering.

The Confederation of British Industry logo

The problem is that since the Education Secretary was at school many more distractions have appeared to divert young people's attention. Trying to get schoolchildren focused on tougher academic subjects by just saying to them "you must do this because it's good for you" is not going to work.
I know that when volunteers deliver enterprise programmes which allow pupils to learn by doing, many young people get it and understand why they need the core numeracy, literacy, IT and communication skills they have to display.

'Success is not appearing on the X Factor

What is clear is that British business has to hold up a mirror to itself and admit that it is too complacent. The CBI has just dismissed a Government proposal to extend training levies to encourage all companies to develop the skills of their existing workforce.

The CBI rightly points out that 90pc of employers provide some sort of training compared with 60pc in mainland Europe. But my question is if British training is so good why do so many insist they have to hire immigrants because of the work-shy "attitude'' of British nationals? Could it be that they are recruiting them and training them the wrong way? Once we recognise that there is an issue that needs to be tackled and then go about solving the problem we will start down the road to economic recovery and growth.

'Attitude is contagious'

Of course, we need more young people to take responsibility for their own lives. Success is not appearing on The X Factor or marrying a footballer. Nothing worth having is easy. But my message to business is simple. Stop complaining about "attitude" if you are doing nothing change it. Attitude is contagious – go out and infect someone.

Ian Smith is chairman of Young Enterprise, founder of AndersonBick consultants and former senior vice-president of Oracle UK, Ireland and Israel

Read this article in the Daily Telegraph:

http://tgr.ph/qC7oN8

Celebrating the qualities of amazing young people in troubled times

2011-08-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

John May

Many people across the nation are shaking their heads in disbelief at the riots tearing apart our cities. But John May insists now is precisely the right time to underline the maturity, creativity and enterprise that young people display when given the proper context to develop their talents...

In this month’s blog I am going, unashamedly, to celebrate the amazing young people who take part in Young Enterprise’s most well-known programme.

For the last nine months, over 25,000 students, aged between 15 and 19, have set up and run their own businesses, under the umbrella of the Young Enterprise Company Programme. From the Highlands and Islands to rural Cornwall, from Belfast to Norwich and everywhere in-between, teams of young people have learned first-hand what’s it like to come up with an idea, raise seed funding, develop a product or service, market, trade and (usually!) make a profit.

Nostalgic cookbook

Whilst doing so, they have also learned the importance of teamwork, how to keep financial accounts, how to resolve conflict and how to present themselves to the general public. They have learned resilience, how to think in different ways, how to differentiate between what’s right and wrong. They have, in short, learned how to do business.


M.D. Noushien Khazeni Rad

There is a competition that runs alongside the programme. Each team has the opportunity to compete in their local area, with the winners moving through to county and regional finals. Last month, the top 12 teams from around the UK came together at the newly refurbished Savoy hotel in London to compete for the title of Young Enterprise Company of the Year. Over three days they had to set up a trade stand, be interviewed by a panel of judges, make a presentation about their company to a packed auditorium and submit a detailed report and set of accounts for scrutiny.

More books!

They were, as they are every year, brilliant. The winners went on to represent the UK in the European finals in Norway at the beginning of August. To our enormous pride and delight that team, Summit, from St Paul's School in London, won the European competition as well - against formidable entries from 33 other countries. Summit created an amazing ‘perfume pen’. But everyone demonstrated that the Young Enterprise experience has really had a terrific impact on their lives.

Rather than go on about this myself, I thought it would be better to let one of the students give you a feel for what their three days were like. Heritage Foods from Chosen Hill School in Cheltenham captured recipes from extended family members to pass on for the next generation to enjoy. They packaged them up into a shrewdly designed book that cleverly invoked the nostalgic aura and sweetly appealing style of Cath Kidson and Orla Kiely.

Mouthwatering Sunday Roast

The quality of their product and the precision of their company report revealed a professionalism and eye for detail that made their company a formidable competitor. Although their formula for the perfect Victoria Sponge and mouthwatering Sunday Roast failed to clinch the top prize, their efforts were recognised when book designer and distribution director Mason Moore won a highly commended Founder's Award for leadership.

Here's their blog:

http://youngenterpriseblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/it-all-seems-likea-72-hour-dream.html

This blog was commissioned to support the Ambition AXA Awards:https://www.ambitionaxaawards.com/

Summit's victory blog

2011-08-08T01:31:00.000-07:00


Summit reaches the pinnacle of success

Exhausted after a night of celebrations following their stunning triumph in Oslo, the boys from Summit penned this letter back to the UK reflecting on the moment they realised they had become European Company of the Year

One of the bad things about celebrating all night is that you have to wake up and write your blog in the morning feeling a little worse for wear. Yes we were indeed celebrating as Summit won the European final of young enterprise, the first UK team of the millennium and the first London team ever!!!

The moment of stunned realisation

Saturday was a sensational day, starting with a morning jazz bar to accompany breakfast, and an "icebreaking" afternoon meeting members from other teams. However of course the most important part of the day was the team interview which took place with the 5 judges.

After a bit of a grilling (to say the least) we were less than confident as we sat down for dinner 7 hours later, awaiting the all important results. However as the chief judge stood up to introduce the winners, she said "this company's biggest challenge was making a product for the better kind, if you know what I mean". Being the slowest member of the team, it took a moment to realise what she was saying, but very slowly our MD jai turned around with his mouth wide open, and it suddenly hit us.


Summit Managing Director Jai Kapoor

Half a minute later, we were on the stage in front of 600 people collecting the prestigious award (some of us in tears, but no names will be mentioned). What followed was a whirlwind of phone calls to other team members, hugs, kisses, handshakes, and a wonderful evening with the 33 other awesome European teams. We take our hats off to these achievers, who have not only taught us so much about business in these past 3 days, but have been a pleasure to be around as well. We wish them all the best in the near future. As for Summit, we hope this is just the beginning....

Now Young Enterprise is officially over, we would sincerely like to thank the charity for guiding and helping us through what has simply been a magical 10 months. In a matter of 6 rounds we have been propelled from a company selling 4 pens at a stand in Kingston, to a company with its own website and selling 100 pens at a time - a dream that only Young Enterprise could make possible. Thank you so very much.

Summit's first despatch from Oslo

2011-08-05T11:57:00.000-07:00


The UK's team Summit celebrates victory

Ecstatic, sleepless and a little disbelieving, the brilliant young entrepreneurs from Summit won the coveted title European Company of the Year....

Here is what they told us as the first day of the competition got under way in the Norwegian capital..before they discovered that they had clinched the coveted prize against 33 other teams...

Ten months ago, 15 boys from St Paul’s School sat down on a Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of entering the renowned Young Enterprise competition.

In what has been a whirlwind number of months, we now write our first blog from Oslo, Norway as we represent the

in the ‘JA-YE’ European final of Young Enterprise.

Perfume pen advert

Words cannot express our delight and honour to be part of what is such a fantastic competition and although it is only our second day, these finals have yet again highlighted the quality and standard of Young Enterprise and its budding achievers.

The Summit team

The European Final so far has been frantic to say the least, as we spent yesterday tirelessly trying to set up our trade stand while practicing our PowerPoint presentation for the following morning.

Fear was a complete understatement for how we were feeling when we were told later that evening that we would be the 2^nd of 4 teams to perform in front of 600 people at the final’s welcoming ceremony.

Fantastic city

However after little sleep, we are sure you will all be glad to know that the presentation was a success (we hope) and our trade stands are currently being judged. This evening will be our first proper evening out in Oslo, which from glimpses we already know is a fantastic city.

After the recent horrors which took place not too far from our hotel, we were aware that this would be a difficult time for Norway, however, both the Norwegian locals and staff have been as helpful and friendly as ever, and for that we are extremely thankful.

The beautiful Oslo Fjord by night - a moving and
sombre scene as Norway mourns
the recent atrocity

We will be leaving flowers by the local Church at 8pm this evening in honour of the 77 people who were so tragically killed on the 22^nd July. It has been a simply mind-blowing year for Summit, and we have no intention of either letting ourselves or indeed the nation down at this last hurdle.

We would like to thank all those who have ever supported us, our bought one of our products, as without you this dream would have been cut short.

Gracious

We would also like to take this time to congratulate all those achievers who participated in the

, who were not only so gracious in (what may have seemed as, but most certainly isn’t) defeat, but so helpful and honest when giving advice etc. at various competitions.

The pen

Summit has no intention of letting any of you down and wishes all those companies the best of luck in the near future. However, we must now run as the judging has begun and we have some Perfume Pens to sell!

From the Boys

Summit /\

2011-08-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

How some bright Working Class Geordies

took on world and earned their wings

Tripz ‘n’ Tipz is a Young Enterprise Company from John Spence Community High School, a comprehensive in the North East of England. The innovative team of pupils aged between 14 and 15 years of age did something remarkable. They created a unique product. It's a travel pack containing information and games about specific holiday destinations for children to explore during their holiday.

After winning the North East regional final of the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011, the students met with Thomson Holidays at its head office in Luton. The famous company agreed the travel packs designed for children travelling to Greece, Turkey and Spain would go on sale in its travel shops in spring 2012. Thomson will also promote the product in its in-flight magazine and sell it on aircraft. Here, the team writes of its experiences at the national final of the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011 in London:

Angel of
the North

As we write this, we have been back at school now for a while, which has given us some good time to reflect. Getting to the National Final was no easy feat. The team had fought off fierce competition in the Area and Regional Finals beating prestigious private schools and older competition in the form of 17-18 year olds. And we knew we would have to do this all again...

Newcastle Upon Tyne's Central Station

Day 1

So it was, on a bright summer's morning on the 4^th of July that 5 members, of Tripz ‘n’ Tipz, whom had been democratically chosen by the rest of the team, headed for Newcastle train station to catch the early train to London.

We arrived at the Strand Palace Hotel and set up the Trade Stand at the Savoy on time, despite our train being delayed by half an hour.

Tripz n Tipz team: concealing their feelings
about a temperamental Powerpoint machine rather
well

We were then whisked of to our undisclosed secret location which turned out to be the magnificent HSBC tower in Canary Warf. Here we had our briefing for the two days ahead whilst staying tightly glued to our seats under the fear that we may fall out of the window on the 41^st floor. After the briefing we then had our only free time in London where we enjoyed a relaxing meal at an Italian restaurant.

Day 2

The next day was an early wake up call. We started with a 60 minute gruelling interview process from the 6 judges which left us stressed and rather tired. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there as we still had to rehearse our presentation and correct the temperamental PowerPoint slide. After lunch, we had our Business Advisor Interview and then the demanding judge’s boardroom interview.

As difficult as the day had been we returned back to our hotel rooms under the knowledge we had done our best and what happened would happen. We quickly jumped in the shower and prepared for the evening. That night we thoroughly enjoyed networking and sharing dinner at the Savoy with influential members of the business world from across the UK. Some of the team even received job offers and we collected many business cards.

Tripz n Tipz wow the audience with their presentation

Day 3

Wednesday arrived and along with it the rest of Tripz ‘n’ Tipz; all of whom had flown down with our Head Teacher and Board of Governors at 5:30 that morning. After many trial runs to make sure the event were fitting with John May’s standards the guests began to arrive. As seats were taken the presentations began.

Nervously, we took to the stage; third and performed a solid presentation which we are deeply proud of. After a quick lunch it was time for the awards ceremony. Unfortunately, we did not place in the top 3 nevertheless, we will gladly say we finished 4th.

However, our Business Advisor (described to the judges as the “Mary Poppins” of the business world) won the much disserved Business Advisor of the Year Award.

We also won the People’s Award for the Best Presentation voted by the business people in the audience which means a lot to us! So thanks to all of those who voted!

Cos Selcuk, Managing Director, Tripz n Tipz:
cleared for takeoff

Our Experience

Our journey and experience with Young Enterprise has been an absolutely fabulous one and we would not change it for the world. We have created great bonds and friendships within our company which had not existed before the scheme. We have learnt so much due to the programme and the skills we have learnt will undoubtedly benefit us in the future as we move onto year 11, college, sixth form and beyond. We would also like to recommend Young Enterprise to anyone out there, as it is definitely worth the time and effort and therefore, is a valuable scheme!

Sue Kell wins Business Adviser
of the Year Award

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our Link Teacher Mrs Bray (who is due to leave us to go on Maternity leave, we wish you all the best), our award winning Business Advisor Sue Kell and everyone at Young Enterprise (especially Janet Woodhouse and her team).

Young Enterprise will stay with us for the rest of our lives after all winning 2 awards at the National Final isn’t bad!

What to wear in the Olympic kitchen...

2011-07-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

Sahar Khan, Managing Director,
Cook-It GB, models an example of
her company's fetching range of
Olympic-themed aprons.

A team of young people from Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, latched on to the merchandising opportunities created by next year’s Olympic Games as their entry for the Innovation Awards.

They manufactured “Cook-It GB” aprons to inspire a year of healthy, freshly made food preparation.

In time-honoured fashion, they responded to official rejection letters when they applied to use the Olympics rings image by flipping the logo on its head.

Managing Director, SAHAR KHAN tells about surviving the heat in the entrepreneurial kitchen....

Keeping with the ever-present theme of the Olympics 2012 in Britain, Cook It GB aimed to create an innovative product which stood out from other Olympic merchandise (when you see our famous belly builder you will realise that this aim was achieved). Our Cook It GB Sports Spectator Apron is a unique, fresh and humorous take on the traditional body-builder image apron.

Famous belly-builder apron!

As I write, it’s just about 2 weeks since our fantastic experience at the UK national finals of the Young Enterprise competition in the stunning Savoy Hotel London and we’re all still getting our heads round the exciting events.

The Cook-It GB team dislpay their array of gorgeous
kitchen wear, perfect for flipping burgers while
watching the 2012 Games

We are a small, close-nit and motivated team of 8 individuals all with very high ambitions both as individuals and as a company. We are from Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest; Wales (though as we were told several times in London none of us have the slightest of welsh accents).

Sitting in Pontyberem town hall we never imagined getting to the Savoy Hotel Final

Our young enterprise journey started in the Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire round in Pontyberem back in April. Although this was only 3 months ago, our Sales, interview technique, product and most importantly our trade stand (which was roughly painted up the night before the first round) has certainly come a long way since then!! Sitting in Pontyberem town hall, we never imagined getting as far as we have due to a late start in forming the team in January almost 4 months later than most companies. However we made it to the regional finals, followed by the Welsh finals in Cardiff where we faced fierce competition, none the less we gave it our all, were crowned Welsh champions and put through to the UK finals!! This seemed crazy!

HSBC building in Canary Wharf, London Docklands.
The 49th floor is almost invisible from here

DAY ONE

Unlike most teams, our UK finals trip was extended to 4 days. We set off on the Sunday and travelled for 4 hours in a mini bus, packed to the brim with our trade stand, to a Reading travel lodge.

We discovered the Scots in the team next to us were already national champions...

This meant we only had to travel an hour into London the following morning (not accounting for the extra hour we spent in city traffic). We arrived at the Savoy at 2 and began setting our stand up ensuring that our grand stand music incorporated in the stand was heard by everyone in the room. We then began meeting some of the other companies and learning about their regional experiences, immediately it occurred to us that, apart from the Scottish team, we were the only ones who were already national champions.

We were then taken for briefing to the 49^th floor in the HSBC building where the lift doors opened to a conference room with a breath taking view of London. This was the sort of place that many of the competitors present (including me) aspire to end up. For me this was a real highlight.

We were ready for two days of HELL!

After hearing about our success our local MP who was in London invited us for drinks on the terrace of the House of Commons for the evening. Now we were rubbing shoulders with real high flyers. After a hectic first day in London we headed back to our hotel (which was a big step up from the travel lodge the night before) for a good night sleep ready for the “two days of hell” we were promised by John May at the briefing!!

The team enjoyed drinks
on the House of Commons Terrace

DAY TWO

Day 2 started early with breakfast in the hotel! A BIG breakfast! We headed over to the Savoy to set up and for some morning Coffee with fancy biscuits (the free food on the trip as you may have already guessed was our favourite bonus). We then had our judging at the stand with each individual judge and boy did we get a grilling! After all of these interviews we had a quick moment to reflect and then headed off for a full rehearsal for the presentation the next day. The Tec guys really made us feel like rock stars! After lunch we had our main 10 minute interview with the full panel of judges. We thought the earlier interviews were the most intense it could possibly get, we were wrong.

The Savoy Hotel, The Strand, London

As one of the last interviews of the day we had just under an hour to go and prepare for the big Dinner in the ball room (as the only girl in a team full of boys it was difficult to get any sympathy for this).

The whole evening felt like a dream

Once showered and in our suits and dresses looking a lot more relaxed we head back over to the Savoy to our stands where we received complementary drinks (and lots of them) and met with some big name industry experts. This was an excellent opportunity to show off our successes so far as well as learn about the careers of truly successful entrepreneurs. We were then led into the ball room for dinner. This was another opportunity to get to know the high calibre guests and learn their stories.

The whole evening felt like a dream.

DAY THREE

Day 3 was an even earlier start, but after another huge breakfast and about 10 red bulls (mostly consumed by Will our production manager) we were ready to go.

Judges deliberating whether to buy The Belly Builder apron...

Jon, our finance manager, was losing his voice...

We made the trip from the Stand hotel to the Savoy for the last time with all of our bags and got the stand ready for meeting more guests.

It was then time for the final ceremony where presentations would be made. Again we were one of the last presentations so tensions built not to mention that Jon, our finance manager, was losing his voice so nerves were higher than usual. Finally our turn came, all was fine and Jon’s voice held out for the duration of the presentation.

It was then time for lunch while the judges retired to make their decision. This felt like the longest hour of our lives! Then we headed back into the ball room for the presentations. The judges gave some feedback and said some very nice things about our company. We came fourth for sure!

It was then time to pack everything up and say goodbye to the Savoy and young enterprise, a very depressing feeling. However after about 15 minutes of disappointment in the mini bus home we turned things around again and began to reflect on the experience and successes we have a achieved so far as a team. In our team we already have many high achievers from high grades to welsh champion athletes but unanimously we agreed that the achievements and experiences of Young Enterprise have beaten almost all of these HANDS DOWN!

This is not the last you’ll hear from these individuals in Cook It GB so keep your eyes peeled!

Sahar Khan

Managing Director

2011-07-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

By Ian Smith,
Chairman,
Young Enterprise

Dear Mr Gove: here’s why Young Enterprise doesn’t deserve exclusion from the curriculum

One of the most liberating things about not working for major corporations any more is that I don’t have to mind my Ps and Qs quite so much. Two years ago I retired after more than 30 years in front-line management and now I feel I can speak frankly and be more political, especially about a couple of issues which I believe have the potential to torpedo the recovery of the British economy.

Torpedo

Amy Parkes - one of 5,000 Young Enterprise
business mentors volunteering in UK classrooms
each year

One of these issues is the fact that the Department of Education is now adopting an alarmingly narrow focus on academic skills and exams. And the other is the tendency of senior managers in business to blame the attitude of British workers for their own failures.

'The Department of Education is adopting an alarmingly narrow focus on academic skills and exams. And senior managers in business are tending to blame the attitude of British workers for their own failures.'

Before I explain further what I mean, I’d like to say that I am extraordinarily optimistic about Britain’s prospects, a feeling which comes over me every year at around this time.

Why I am optimistic

And the reason? The reason for my upbeat view is I have privileged access to a view of the future. I have the honour to be chairman of Young Enterprise, a charity funded largely by sponsorship from the private sector, which helps 250,000 young people from 4 to 24 years old to learn about business, with the help of 5,000 volunteers from companies.

As in every previous year, I was incredibly impressed and motivated by the standard of entries which reached the final of the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011, held last week.

Over the past year, 30,000 young entrepreneurs from schools and colleges up and down the country ran their own real companies guided by their Young Enterprise mentors. After making it through four rigorous regional rounds of the competition, the last 12 teams battled for the national crown, Company of the Year, at The Savoy Hotel.

Summit Enterprise from St Paul's School, Barnes, South London.
They won the HSBC Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2011 Award#
with their 'perfume pen'

Thrilling

Summit Enterprise, from St Paul’s School, Richmond, won with a ballpoint pen that doubles as a perfume atomiser, which they designed and had manufactured in China. They go on to compete for the European title in Oslo this August. The whoops and yells of the winning firms were thrilling. This experience is what tells me we have the mechanism for producing the innovative and enterprising young people the UK needs to ensure its future prosperity. The only question is, is it big enough?

Young Enterprise was set up in 1963 by the merchant banker Sir Walter Salomon, based on the successful Junior Achievement organisation in the USA. His family is still heavily involved, with William Salomon in place as Life President.

The Young Enterprise logo:
the charity has emerged leaner and stronger
after merging 11 component parts into one this spring.

Today, Young Enterprise is a £7 million concern funded by sponsorship from firms such as HSBC, GKN, Cisco, Cadbury, Accenture and Ryman.

This brings me to my main point.

In our 50-year history, never has the work of Young Enterprise been more important than it is in the present day. Nearly a million young people are unemployed throughout the economy. It was reported recently that 84 graduates were chasing every job that is available, and I can’t see life getting better anytime soon.

Stark choice

It seems to me, therefore, that young people have a stark choice. Either they can chase a job, and certainly if they can put down on their CV that they took part in Young Enterprise Company Programme, that might help differentiate them from the competition.

'Unfortunately we are a long way off where we need to be before entrepreneurship becomes the natural choice of the new generation'

Education Secretary Michael Gove: adopting
an alarmingly narrow view based
on academic skills and exams.

Or, instead of chasing a job, they could be bold. They could say they are going to start a business, generate GDP, and create employment for themselves and others instead of expecting it to come to them. Anyone who has taken this course of action knows that the benefits are not only fiscal, but huge in terms of enjoyment, achievement and a sense of control over their own lives.

Worrying

Unfortunately we are a long way off where we need to be before entrepreneurship becomes the natural choice of the new generation, and before we get there we have some serious issues to address.

One, as I mentioned earlier, is what I believe to be a worrying decision by the Department of Education to adopt a narrow focus on what Education Secretary Michael Gove refers to as a more knowledge-focused curriculum, with History, English and Maths centre stage. Assessment will be much more exam based.

Let me make it clear right away that I fully support the concept of putting pressure on young people in a tough economic climate to achieve high academic standards. And I endorse the notion that these should be measured by a robust examination system.

'The new Government’s approach lacks a focus on the skills, attitudes and behaviours that young people actually need in their working lives.'

But, potentially, there is a problem in that too heavy a focus on the purely academic approach runs the risk of downgrading other learning styles. Concentration on the craft of teaching by conventional methods risks ignoring the inspiring contribution adults other than teachers – such as Young Enterprise mentors – can make to the learning experience.

'Young people need skills like teamwork, presentation, reliability, honesty, integrity, and punctuality that employers look for'

What I see in the new Government’s approach is an alarming lack of focus on the skills, attitudes and behaviours that young people actually need, and understand they need, to be successful in their working lives. Skills like teamwork, presentation, reliability, honesty, integrity, and punctuality, which employers like me look for when taking on new recruits.

Farr Safer, from Farr High School in the Highland and Moray area,
finalists in the HSBC
Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011

Of course, the basic skills of literacy and numeracy are vital. No one denies that. But I fear the Government is ignoring the enormous amount of evidence that young people can also learn by doing – giving them the opportunity to run their own real businesses while they are still at school and college, as Young Enterprise does, encourages in them the drive, ambition and skills to succeed in their whole lives.

My other issue is that in the time since Michael Gove was at school many more distractions have appeared to divert young people’s attention. Just saying to them:’ you must do this because it’s good for you’ ain’t going to work. I am convinced that Young Enterprise offers programmes which provide a context within which young people will say: ‘’Now I get it! This is why I need those core skills.’’

Excited by the possibilities

They will understand they need those skills because when they enter the world of work, whether for an employer or for themselves, they are going to be reading a balance sheet, filling out a balanced scorecard and writing a business plan. And they will be driven to learn those skills because they want to, because they are excited by the possibilities for themselves and they understand better why those skills are relevant to their lives.

Young Enterprise students with their business mentors

So my message to Mr Gove is that Young Enterprise doesn’t deserve exclusion from the curriculum, because we can actually promote success in the classroom, as well as being an enabler for the achievements of young people in their chosen careers. Incidentally, this is why we have launched the Young Enterprise Charter, a petition which has gained major support among businesses for its aim of getting enterprise education firmly established in the statutory curriculum. We will be presenting the results to Parliament in October.

And my message to business is no less critical. I am utterly fed up of sitting in business meetings listening to people complaining, trying to blame their own failures on the attitude of the British worker, and particularly young people entering employment.

' My message to business is: don’t just sit in meetings moaning about the attitude of British workers, get yourself and your employees out amongst young people as business mentors'

To all those in management who persist in this negative view, I s.'ay this: attitude is infectious. If you want to change it, don’t just sit in meetings moaning, get yourself and your employees out amongst young people as business mentors, Get involved – there are plenty of opportunities in Young Enterprise to begin to inspire the next generation, and we have the tools to help you do that.

Or, if you choose not to join the brilliant companies who are already reaping the benefits of their involvement with Young Enterprise, stop complaining. Please - no more about the attitude of the British people unless you can show that you are involved in turning it around.

Ian Smith is Managing Partner of AndersonBick Consultants LLP, his own executive coaching consultancy, but was until recently Regional Senior Vice President, of Oracle UK, Ireland & Israel, a post he held for nine years.
Prior to his tenure at Oracle, he joined BT as Director of Customer Service, was subsequently made Managing Director of BT's consumer division, and finally Managing Director of BT UK Customer Service.

Young Enterprise is building a connected world of young people, business volunteers and educators, inspiring each other to succeed through enterprise.
To get involved in Young Enterprise click here: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/
Learn more about the Young Enterprise Charter: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/about_us/charter
Sign up to it: http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/resources/charter/charterregister.php

It all seems like...a 72 hour dream

2011-07-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Mason Moore, Book Designer and Distribution Director of Heritage Foods at Chosen Hill School, receieves a highly commended Founder's award from Carolyn Townsend, daughter of our Founder

Heritage Foods from Chosen Hill School in Cheltenham captured recipes from extended family members to pass on for the next generation to enjoy. They packaged them up into a shrewdly designed book that cleverly invoked the nostalgic aura and sweetly appealing style of Cath Kidson and Orla Kiely.
Perfect Victoria Sponge
The quality of their product and the precision of their company report revealed a professionalism and eye for detail that made their company a formidable competitor at the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011. Although their formula for the perfect Victoria Sponge and mouthwatering Sunday Roast failed to clinch the top prize, their efforts were recognised when book designer and distribution director Mason Moore won a highly commended Founder's Award for leadership. Here's their blog:

The nostalgic book of recipies produced by Heritage Foods

We've just returned home from the Young Enterprise Innovation Awards at The Savoy - please bear with us whilst we take that in. That's right, as a newcomer to the scheme, we are still completely and utterly shocked that we've come this far! It's total madness!

The Heritage Foods team at their trade stand

When we were told we'd be going to the national finals of Young Enterprise at the Regionals, we had no idea what to expect. No one there had been before and our school certainly had never been there. We are the first school in Gloucestershire to have gone through to the national stage in 25 years and that is something which still blows us away! We're still shocked we won 7 awards in the area trade show!

DAY ONE

Unlike some of the other teams, we were able to have a lovely lie in and we set off for London at 11am via chauffeured car, arriving in the big city for 2pm after several bags of crisps and pots of hummus (we're addicted to it!).

Carrying what felt like hundreds of crates over to The Savoy, we constructed our tradestand and checked out the competition. One thing we're proud of as a team is that we are always ready to make friends. Of course everyone is there to compete and, like John May says frequently, there is only one winner - but that doesn't mean you can't make friends with people!

Once we made the stand look very pretty, we were then told we were to be going to the HSBC Tower in Canada Square, which was 'the top secret location'. Along with the shock that we were going to an actual place (we thought it was described that way as a joke), we all slipped on our lanyards and proceeded across the millennium bridge to Canary Wharf, where we'd be taking a lift to the 41st floor. Overwhelmed with the breathtaking views of London, we mingled with the other teams over a cold glass of Coca-Cola. We were then briefed by an enthusiastic member of HSBC and the legend that is John May.

We were too excited to contain ourselves. We celebrated with a PizzaExpress, courtesy of Young Enterprise. Oh, and a McFlurry.

DAY TWO

The Heritage Foods
team in mid sales patter

Judging day. It's always a anxious thing, even after 2 trade show rounds in the bag. This time it was make or break and we were certainly feeling nervous at the prospect of being scrutinised and questioned for 60 minutes by 6 judges. Certain we'd done OK, we relaxed with tea (The Savoy have an amazing collection of JING teabags). We had a production meeting where we practised our presentation and we were feeling a bit more confident about Wednesdays big finale. Eating the most delicious beef wellington, we discussed with other teams about how their judging had gone. Everyone was feeling anxious.

We sold more than 30 cookbooks in 30 minutes!

We were then escorted to a boardroom upstairs where we were then interviewed for 10 minutes about the type of business we are. Heritage Foods is a commercial business with very strong ethical opinions. We're a business with morals, and we ensured that the judges knew that.

Showered and groomed, and dressed much more formal, we walked to The Savoy by foot where we met and dined with some of the most influential business people in England, including individuals from Lloyds, Saatchi & Saatchi, Coutts and The Institute of Directors. (Hello to Sarah from Lloyds if you're reading this!). Selling over 30 cookbooks in 30 minutes, we were also pleased with the positive reaction from the public about our product.

Straight to bed. Up for 5:30am.

Noushien Khazeni Rad managing director of Heritage Foods
from Chosen Hill School
at the HSBC Young Enterprise innovation awards 2011

DAY THREE

It's the big day. There would be one winner only. Could we be it? Socialising around our tradestand, we chatted with our grandparents, parents and business people, who had all come to support us. Feeling anxious, we applauded each team who presented, knowing that we'd soon be up there, on stage, talking to hundreds of people about how far we'd come. It was time. We presented (with big smiles!) and we did well-ish, but did we do good enough? Then it was awards time and unfortunately, we didn't win any. But Mason, the designer of our product & Creative Director, won a very special award - a highly commended award for the Young Enterprise Founders Award, and he left the stage with a tear and with very proud parents.

We came fourth, by the way...

And this made us realise, it's great to win awards. It's great to come first (we came fourth by the way), but if you don't win, it doesn't mean you haven't worked hard. Just to be at the National Finals in that beautiful Ballroom is the award. Everyone there was a winner and we are so proud to have been there.

Those 72 hours were a dream and they will remain with us for the rest of our lives, along with some of the friends we've made.

Noushien Khazeni-Rad - managing director

Mason Moore - Book Designer and Distribution Director

Jonah Horne - Sales and Distribution Director

Ryan Daniell - Finance Director

Emily Stone - Sales and Human Resources Director

A breathtaking, terrifying, brilliant honour...

2011-07-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

Aaron Callaghan, managing director
Generations from Wallace High School,
Northern Ireland

A record company set up by a group of 17-year-olds from Lisburn, Northern Ireland, showcased their business at the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards. The company, called Generations, promotes local musicians.
The company has a total of eight people of the same age. They have sold 250 CDs so far and Aaron says they "plan to sell a lot more". It said something about the ferocity of the competition that Generations did not win in London. However the youthful firm won the Northern Ireland Young Enterprise company of the year.
And, as the team makes clear in its blog, the entire experience provided the Wallace High School pupils with some amazing opportunities....

At last our Young Enterprise Company Program journey is over and what a way to end it! After almost 11 months filled with every feeling from stress to excitement, terror to exhilaration was finally complete.
Our experience with Young Enterprise has been a fantastic one and 3 days in London with all expenses paid really is the best way possible to end it. It all kicked off with a very early morning.

The Savoy has had a £220 million refit

We had to get up...
at 3 a.m!

We all had to get up at 3am in order to catch our flight to London at 6.30am. When we arrived we got to spend the morning sightseeing and then it was off to the Savoy Hotel to start the competition. The first task was to set up our stand. It was a rather nerve-racking as well unpacked everything to find out how much had been broken during the flight over. As it turned out only one trophy was broken.

The view from the 42nd floor
of HSBC Tower
in Canary Wharf

Following this it was revealed that the top secret location where we were off to next was the 42^nd floor of HSBC headquarters for afternoon tea and our briefing. The views through the massive windows were absolutely breathtaking. It was definitely one of those views that very few people very get to see and this made it a real honour to be there.

View that few people get to see

Tuesday was definitely the busiest day of our whole experience. Throughout the morning and early afternoon we were interviewed at our stand by individual judges and then in a conference room by the panel of 6 judges together. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we came out of the final interview and the door was shut behind us. For the remainder of the afternoon Ben Ashby and I were with the camera crew being interviewed and we all had to have a series of press photos taken by the photographer.

That evening it was the bit we had all been waiting for - we were getting a meal in London’s Savoy Hotel. Suit, tie and cufflinks on it was time to go. For the first hour we were at our stands chatting to the guests and introducing them to our company, Generations and then it was time for the meal. It was lovely but in particular the Crème Brulee and sorbet were exquisite. There were speeches and presentations from several people and I think everyone present can honestly say they had a lovely night.

Feeling very tense....

From left to right: Ben Ashby,
Charlotte Nelson, Aaron Callaghan,
Joanna Guthrie, Andrew Cairns.

The final day kicked off with rehearsals and a briefing but all too soon the time had arrived; we all ran into the Ballroom past all the guests. Feeling very tense and absolutely terrified, we took our seats to wait for our turn to present. The next hour flew by and before long we could breath another sigh of relief; our presentation was complete.

'Whilst sadly we didn’t win the UK Final we are still Young Enterprise Northern Ireland Company of the Year and we are very proud of the fact. We have all loved our time with Young Enterprise and enjoyed the media opportunities with BBC News, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Foyle, Northern Ireland radio station U105 and the British Forces Broadcasting Services...'

As well as these we have had so many other opportunities that if we hadn’t taken part in Young Enterprise, we would never have had. It has been brilliant. Thank you Young Enterprise.

Aaron Callaghan

What's it like to compete in the Innovation Awards? A gorgeous brulee...

2011-07-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

ThE COmpany from Clitheroe Grammar School. From left to right: Matthew Moriarty, Becky Winkley, Alex Heywarth, Abbi Beckett, Sam Hampson

Here is a blog from a group of ecologically-minded young business people. They competed in the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards 2011. The 20-strong team of young people who set up thECOmpany are truly passionate about the environment.
They created a unique line of eco gift sets which consist of a beautiful organic jute bag, rose bath bombs and soap, passion punch bath salts, organic face cloth and locally-sourced fairtrade coffee and mug. All components are natural and, excluding the coffee, are sourced from within the UK.

The team write about mental tension and culinary delights of taking part in the competition:

Our experience at the Young Enterprise National Finals was unlike any other experience we’ve had. Arriving on Monday, we instantly began to talk to members of the other teams. We soon learned that the competition was strong but everyone was very supportive of each other. With the ‘undisclosed location’ revealed as the 41^st floor of the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf, we eagerly anticipated the view from the top. We were not disappointed. With our instructions for the next few days, we set off for our relaxing evening in London.

After an early start (but a good breakfast) on day 2, we returned to the Savoy. With 6 grilling interviews at our trade stand, a boardroom interview with all the judges and an interview for the business adviser award, it was a tiring process, but we felt it went well and were all looking forward to the evening.

Clitheroe Grammar School's thE COmpany was
one of the top
teams in the HSBC Young
Enterprise innovation awards 2011

....it gave us an insight into all the incredible work of Young Enterprise

Having prepared for the dinner at the Savoy that evening, we proceeded across from the Strand Palace. The evening gave us the opportunity for much engaging and interesting conversation with many people from the business world, it gave us an insight into all the incredible work of Young Enterprise, and with the spectacle of the meal the evening proved to be a fantastic opportunity for us all. The thrilling night concluded (after the gorgeous crème brulee) and we headed back to our hotel for some final preparations, to pack and to get a good night’s sleep.

We headed for The Savoy!

On the morning of the 3^rd day, we checked out of our rooms and headed over to the Savoy for the final time and for what we knew would be another testing day. Final rehearsals got all the teams into the right mindset for the day ahead before the guests began to arrive. Then our morning comprised of greeting and chatting to guests at the trade stand, along with some last minute preparations and we even managed to slip in a few final practices of our presentation.

Quirky engaging ideas....and a monkey outfit

12 presentations later and a few words from other speakers, the competition had really hot up. The presentations varied greatly with professional business pitches, to quirky engaging ideas, to one with a monkey outfit, but the teams, having done all they could to impress the judges, retired for a well earned lunch.

With many awards presented, including awards for Marketing, Financial Management and the coveted HSBC innovation award, many teams were successful winning one or more prizes with the top prize going to Summit Enterprise. However inevitably, some teams were disappointed. Whether a prize was won or not though, each team thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and as Young Enterprise’s Chief Executive John May reminded us, we are all winners.

Watch thE COmpany's advertising video here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/young-enterprise/8608663/Young-Enterprise-ThECOmpany-North-West.html

Making things happen....

2011-07-07T02:40:00.000-07:00

This blog entry was written to support the Ambition AXA Awards 2011...

I’m often asked what makes a successful entrepreneur. I recently posed that question to some of our most successful alumnae – people who have taken part in our programmes at school and then gone on to start their own companies or become successful business leaders in large corporations. They all seem to agree on the same set of characteristics. To a great extent these are straightforward ‘BGOs’ – blinding glimpses of the obvious – but I think they’re worth sharing.It all comes down to belief… Belief in yourself, belief in your ideas, belief in other people and belief in taking action.
Believe in yourself
This is something the British really aren’t very good at. We have a bit of a phobia about success, whether it’s in ourselves or others. From a very early age, we’re reminded that ‘pride comes before a fall’. But if you look at the most successful people around, all of them have something in common. They’re positive – about themselves, about the challenges they face and about the people around them. This positivity doesn’t have to be brash. It can be understated in an appropriately British way, but to make things happen and be successful, you do need to believe in yourself and what you want to do.
If you have a belief in yourself, then you will communicate that self-belief to others.
Believe in your ideas
In 1937, George and Ira Gershwin wrote:
“They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly… Who’s got the last laugh now?”
Google the full lyrics of the song. They’re worth reading.
Your idea may be about the creation of something new; or it might be applying something well-known in a new and innovative way. It might be about spotting a niche in the market or creating an entirely new one. It really doesn’t matter. The important thing is to believe in it and to hold on to that belief.
It is worth checking out your idea with others. Does it excite them? Do they see a need for it? Do they share your enthusiasm? But recognise that new ideas often have to be put into practice before people properly appreciate them. Too often, ideas stay in the test phase for ever and people fail to take the leap of faith to move from ideas to action. True entrepreneurs follow their hunches.
Successful entrepreneurs, however, also do reality checks along the way. There is no point in creating a brilliant idea that has no financial viability. You can’t change the world without balancing the books.   So, keep your belief in the idea, follow your hunch, but develop a sensible business plan for it – make sure that you can actually make money out of it.
Believe in others
You may be one of those extraordinary individuals who gets out of bed in the morning with a thousand new ideas, has a real flair with numbers, can make things out of nothing and has the gift of the gab. Most people aren’t like that. They may be the ideas generator, or the numbers wizard, or the manufacturer, or the marketeer, but usually not all four at once.
At school, we tend to focus on individual success in class. Using other people’s expertise and experience is often called ‘cheating’. But successful entrepreneurs - and they are often the ideas generators - are really good at gathering teams of people around them who are better at the other stuff. It is the well led team that succeeds. So work out what you do need help with – and go out and find that help.
And, to support your team, find yourself someone who’s already been successful, to mentor you through the process. You will be surprised how willing people will be to offer their expertise to help you succeed.
Believe in action
So, believe in what you’re doing; believe in yourself and that you can persuade others about your idea too. Work out what it’s going to cost to make things happen – and how you will meet those costs. Get a great team around you to ensure that you have all the skills you’ll need to make things happen.
But then, do it. Don’t put it off. Start something.
Most ideas never make it off the drawing board. Not because they’re not great ideas.   Not because they don’t have a strong likelihood of business success. Just because no-one ever actually turns the idea into reality.
Positive action has to go along with positive thinking.   It is the true cornerstone of success. Positive thinking is like looking at homework and saying ‘homework done, homework done, homework done.’   What does that do to the homework? Nothing. It’s the actions that you take that make the difference.

So, move to production or implementation of your idea fast. Some ideas won’t catch on and they will fail. But some will succeed. And by moving swiftly towards action, having taken a calculated risk, you get to market and success, whilst others are still dreaming.

John May, Chief Executive, Young Enterprise