Member Article

Should enterprise be taught in schools?

Retail entrepreneur and former Dragon, Theo Paphitis,has said that enterprise should be taught in schools as part of the national curriculum. Theo argues that traditional qualifications don’t guarantee career success, rather learning about enterprise from an early age would mean that less businesses fail at startup stage.

Should this absent lesson be covered by external organisations coming into schools? Or is there a greater need for studying enterprise to be incorporated into the national curriculum?

Not-for-profit organisation ‘The National Enterprise Challenge’ was set up by family members Ben and Michael Dyer.

The company is supported by Theo, who has helped the company grow to include nine full time staff and a bank of around 30 part time ambassadors.

Bdaily spoke to Ben Dyer co-founder of ‘The National Enterprise Challenge’ who set up the business using a government backed startup loan in December 2012.

The not-for-profit company organises training within schools and runs an enterprise competition with the daily winner going through to a final inter-school competition.

The organisation aims to work with as many schools as possible to enable all students to compete on an equal footing and gain some of the skills needed for the world of work. The scheme has benefited 60,000 students to date.

Ben said, “We’re passionate about what we do and always enjoy the smiles on faces.

“We believe enterprise is something different and our challenges are based on challenges faced in actual businesses.”

A common comment is that young people do not have the basic skills to start entry level jobs despite a supposedly ‘well rounded’ education where they have followed all the ‘right’ routes and gone to university. We must ask ourselves, is the education system failing young people, does it need to change and should a working knowledge of business be compulsory for all young people?

According to the Telegraph a survey of business leaders showed that one in five companies said young people were “not ready”, with young people lacking time management skills and the correct conversational skills needed for the workplace.

I believe that although enterprise is a good thing to cover not everyone wants to set up their own business. It is not the only way to go about your life after education so I don’t think it should be compulsory but more an offered option within the school system. The skills taught for enterprise are useful but not compulsory.

There are many people who will never set up their own business and will never have the desire to do so. I think it is important to state it as an option, you could set up your own business but equally valid are the traditional routes into the workplace.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .