Enterprise is very much in vogue at the moment. At a recent high profile conference on the subject – convened by the Treasury and attended by a significant number of UK business leaders (as well as Bill Gates and Alan Greenspan from the USA) – the Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled a package of measures. Among them were plans for a National Enterprise Week and honours for those promoting enterprise in an attempt to “build a deeper and wider entrepreneurial culture”.
The director general of the CBI, Digby Jones, applauded the move. Tellingly, however, he also warned against the government’s enthusiasm becoming undermined by a narrow interpretation of entrepreneurship. Enterprise, he argued, is for everyone – from the shop floor worker throughout every level of management nationwide. Nor is it only relevant to those in work. The CBI chief emphasised the crucial role of schools and teachers in developing among young people the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will equip them as individuals – and the nation – to compete in today’s global market.
It is a point that is also picked up in the latest research into national entrepreneurial activity. The recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Survey for 2004 calls on policy makers to recognise “the importance of education from an early age in entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to paid employment and, of course, as a means of allowing people to be creative and empowered within their work”.
For my own organisation, the National Education Business Partnership Network, which represents 129 local member EBPs across the country, these are all messages we warmly embrace. For us, however, there remains a twofold challenge: how to translate these policy aspirations into practical outcomes; and how to turn national macro objectives into local micro realities. We have always been convinced that direct involvement by the corporate sector – public as well as private – is essential to achieving both goals.
There is much already being done. We currently have the support of personnel in over 200,000 companies, who are helping to deliver our programmes – through work experience, placing teachers in industry, mentoring, visits to the work place, literacy/ numeracy initiatives, and enterprise challenges and competitions. Central to our raison d’être, then, is a belief that the business community can play a unique role, in partnership with the education sector, in enhancing the life chances of young people.
But there is still much more that must be done. One way companies can build on the present momentum for enterprise development is through the Enterprise Insight campaign. Launched at the beginning of 2004, the campaign is funded by the Small Business Service and backed by groups such as the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Institute of Directors. It aims to create a ‘buzz’ over the next year on many levels: with the media, commercial partners, enterprise delivery organisations and, critically, peer-to-peer groups of young people on the ground. The end goal? To combine together to make enterprise a national discussion point from the boardroom to the local pub.
The NEBPN, at both national and local level, remains more eager than ever to discuss how we might work together to make the ‘enterprise buzz’ a reality.
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