A
culmination of the findings from the first year of RBS’s Inspiring
Enterprise initiative, the Manifesto argues that more could be done to
help young people at every stage of their ‘entrepreneurial journey’ –
from developing their entrepreneurial abilities in school to helping
them start their own venture and supporting them as it develops.
As part of its aim to help 100,000 more young people discover
entrepreneurship by 2015, RBS Inspiring Enterprise and the RSA spoke to
over 120 young people to find out more about the barriers facing young
entrepreneurs.
Key principles
The interviews enabled RBS and the RSA to set out a list of 15 key
‘principles’ designed to help more young people realise their
entrepreneurial potential. These include:
- Shining a light on the ‘everyday entrepreneurs’ that young people
can more easily relate to and be inspired by, rather than celebrities
that may put entrepreneurship on a pedestal
- Exposing more young people to enterprise-related learning by
embedding it throughout school curricula and FE/HE courses, rather than
treating it as a bolt-on exercise
- Going beyond traditional support such as financial help and advice,
to provide young entrepreneurs with hands-on practical help –such as
assistance with website development or help with filling in VAT returns –
that would enable them to take their product or service to market more
rapidly.
- Ensuring support for young entrepreneurs gets beyond London and the
‘vogue industries’ like the creative and technology sectors, to support
young people in whatever location or industry they are in
- Supporting young people to sustain and grow their businesses
throughout their entrepreneurial journey – not just in the early stages
of establishing their venture
- Boosting demand for the products and services of young
entrepreneurs, for example by encouraging large corporations to build
them into their supply chains or helping them win contracts with local
authorities
- Encouraging the media to avoid using the term ‘failure’ to describe
the act of closing a business –explaining instead how dropping in and
out of business is part and parcel of life as an entrepreneur
UK lags behind
More than 95% of firms in the UK employ less than 10 people, yet the
research reveals that the UK lags behind France, Germany and the United
States in terms of start-up rates among young people. One in 7 young
people in the US are in the early stages of starting a venture, compared
to 1 in 17 in the UK.
There is a gulf between the young people who aspire to start up their
own businesses and those that actually achieve their goal, according to
recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor figures. These show that of the
10% of young people who say they want to create their own business, only
a third are actually doing so. Moreover, there is a 1 in 3 chance that
those who do start-up will drop out within their first 12 months,
compared to 1 in 10 people over the age of 30.
Flexible education
Lord Young, the Prime Minister’s adviser on enterprise, said that the
UK had been through a revolution in the last 15 years since the
internet reached “critical mass”, with the number of small firms soaring
from 2.5m to more than 4m now. “It is a small firm’s world. This means a
great difference in the way we prepare people for the world of work, in
the way we educate them,” he said.
He said that children in the very early stages of their education
were guided towards employed roles rather than working for themselves.
He added that people were more likely to end up working for two, three
or four different companies at a time, and “for this, we need an
extremely flexible education system”.
He said as someone who last worked as an employee in March 1961, he could vouch for the benefits of running your own business.
“It is a great way to spend your life, working for yourself or in a
small firm, because it is creative, constructive and I promise you it’s a
darn sight more enjoyable,” he said.
Thom Kenrick, RBS Head of Sustainability Programmes, said: “Our
findings reveal that enterprise support has come on in leaps and bounds
in the last few years alone. However, it is also clear that there is
much more we could do to help young people start up in the world of
business.
“Too few young people act on their ambition to start a business, and
even if they do, many cease trading shortly after starting. This is
something we are seeking to address through RBS Inspiring Enterprise.”
* The RBS Inspiring Enterprise project has committed by the end of
2015 to help 100,000 young people to explore enterprise, develop their
skills and start up in business, whatever their background; to inspire
and enable 20,000 women to explore and unlock their enterprise
potential; and to support 2,500 social enterprises, working in
partnership with the sector to improve access to expertise, markets and
finance.
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