Young Enterprise
Receiving an OBE for educational charity work earlier this year was an immeasurably proud moment for me and my family. Young Enterprise has always been an important part of our lives, since my father, Sir Walter, founded the charity in 1962.
Entering our 7th decade there is still so much more that needs to be done to increase young people’s access to opportunities to build the skills to learn to earn and look after their money.
Young Enterprise was originally based on a successful Junior Achievement programme encountered by my father while travelling in America. He admired the US charity’s ability to foster work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills and was particularly impressed by its philosophy of “learning by doing”, a philosophy that still underpins Young Enterprise’s work today. Over 60 years ago, he launched the first UK Company Programme in Chatham, Kent and it attracted 113 teenagers who formed eight student firms.
It was in the 70s when the charity took its first great leap forward, seeing 22 Young Enterprise Area Boards of volunteers start up across the UK. These wonderfully creative volunteers established Young Enterprise Centres in abandoned warehouses and disused factories, a church building and even in a pub. An initial demonstration of the can-do attitude and creativity that Young Enterprise aims to instill and develop in all the young people who pass through its programmes.
By the 80s, backers such as Mobil Oil were coming aboard, and six regional winners attended the national finals in London with the ‘Best Company’ receiving £1,500 in cash. This was the beginning of the exciting format Young Enterprise still uses today, now a national initiative, where school students aged 13 – 19 are given the opportunity to develop their skills and prepare for the world of work by setting up and running their own company.
In 2023, Young Enterprise celebrated 60 years of providing financial and enterprise education opportunities in communities across the UK. Throughout that time, over 7.2 million young people have benefited from Young Enterprise’s programmes, while 1.1m young people have since set up and run 84,000 Young Enterprise companies. All this would have been impossible without the thousands of industry volunteers and teachers who continue to support programmes across the UK every year.
Through these hands-on programmes, resources and teacher training, Young Enterprise has markedly increased access to practical real-world learning. The type of learning children not only seem to enjoy, but often excel in. With the help of its partners, educators, and volunteers, Young Enterprise has been able to equip its young people with key workplace skills to further support them in building their own futures.
In December, the House of Lords called for an urgent overhaul of secondary education, while both major parties are providing policies aimed at dealing with record absenteeism. Too many children are finding that the UK’s ‘one size fits all’ approach to education policy simply doesn’t excite or motivate them. The secondary education system continues to remain focused primarily on academic learning and exams. And while academics are clearly important, it is Young Enterprise’s belief that this need to be accompanied and complemented by meaningful opportunities for young people to apply their learning. Too often, learning can be too focused on building knowledge, rather than providing opportunities to translate that knowledge into action, and in doing so build critical skills. Being involved in Young Enterprise’s work has enabled me to travel around the country, visiting schools and talking to young people, seeing our programmes in action, and observing the type of learning that they can apply and transfer into their future plans.
These real-life skills, together with an enterprising mindset help prepare young people for a fast-paced changing world of work – qualities the nation’s businesses are looking for when they hire recruits. Communication, financial capability, problem-solving, team building and increasingly digital skills are as essential. When they are given the experience, the young people I have met over the years have always provided inspiration through their ability, hard work and sense of fun.
Looking ahead, we are committed to unlocking the potential of young people who face the greatest barriers to social mobility, by providing increased opportunities for them to apply their learning and by supporting them with relatable role models and a diverse volunteer community. Our work through Project IF “Inspiring Futures” focuses specifically on bringing opportunities into the most deprived areas of the country and preparing young people for an increasingly complex world, enabling them to make positive contributions to their own communities and become agents of change in society.
By continuing to provide real-world experiences of learning, we hope we can instil the next generation with the same enthusiasm that we have had for entrepreneurship, and in doing so, potentially transform many young people’s lives. A prospect that stands to benefit us all in terms of increasing the future productivity and economic potential of our country.
By Mr William Salomon OBE (1975)
This article was first published in Magdalene Matters Spring/Summer 2022 Issue 54.