ISSUES
: Business and Trade
Chapter 1: Business today
9
registrations for Fiver so far, far
exceeding the 20,000 target for this
first year, and we will be looking to
double this programme over the
next two years. There are many
other activities that take place in and
around schools. Quite apart from
Outward Bound and other similar
programmes, there are often school
companies,
work
experience,
additional vocational courses and
enterprising summer and holiday
activities. That is why I amproposing
an Enterprise Passport that will
follow an individual throughout their
time in education. This passport will
be digital, will list all the extramural
and other activities and will, for
example, enable an employer to
take a more rounded view of that
individual other than by assessing
academic qualifications alone. I
could see it being a useful adjunct
in university entrance as well.
Teachers will have a key role to play
if we are to support the learning of
young people with the right mix of
enterprise and employability skills.
I have met many talented teachers
up and down the country who are
already demonstrating imaginative
and enterprising approaches to
teaching and learning, and I want
to encourage them to go further
to promote their pupils’ enterprise
capabilities. I have therefore
proposed that all teachers be given
the opportunity to spend a week
with a large organisation, public
or private, on a special course
designed to bring out the skills and
attitudes required in tomorrow’s
world. I also propose that facilities
be made available to enable
teachers to spend some of their
inset days with employers.
We have many excellent further
education colleges that produce
hundreds of thousands of young
people with highly employable
skills, but my research has found
that only a small number of college
courses prepare their students for
self-employment or setting up a
business. In fact many graduates,
be they plumbers, plasterers,
hairdressers or many of the
other skills acquired in a further
education college, may well want to
start working for themselves. That
is why I am recommending that
all courses should include a core
module on starting a business so
that all graduates will leave with the
necessary skills.
Last year we started working with
university business schools and as a
result many are now reaching out to
small firms in their vicinity. Business
schools have, up to now, devoted
themselves to producing executives
for large companies and, as a result
of the steps we took last year, we
will see more entrepreneurs coming
from the schools themselves.
However, within the whole body
of students at any university, be
they on courses as diverse as
archaeology to zoology, individuals
may wish to work for themselves
or indeed go into business to help
others, as the substantial growth of
social enterprises in recent years
can attest. The steps outlined in
my report will enable many more
entrepreneurs to emerge from the
general body of students.
It is difficult to exaggerate the
importance of enterprise in all its
forms in a modern economy. This
report outlines a number of steps
we can take over the next few
years but much more needs to be
done. I am reminded that many of
the initiatives I introduced in the
1980s as a minister evolved into
stronger programmes that were
able to adapt over time, and I hope
that the proposals I set out in this
report can be seen as a foundation
for us to build on. We can no longer
afford to be an island in a globalised
world and our competitors will not
wait for us.
2014
Ö
Ö
The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from the Department for
Business, Innovation & Skills
and Prime Minister’s Office
10 Downing Street. Please
visit
for further
information.
© Crown copyright 2016
*Fiver is a Young Enterprise scheme
and more details can be found at
