The Young Enterprise Charter

Sign up to the charter here

So what is the Young Enterprise Charter?

Essentially it is a petition.
It was launched in May 2011 to alert the country to two issues that could torpedo the economy.
As Ian Smith, chairman of Young Enterprise, put it:

• the Department of Education is adopting an alarmingly narrow focus on academic skills and exams.
• And too many senior managers in business are tending to blame the attitude of British workers, particularly young recruits, for their own failures.

The key problem is that Education Secretary Michael Gove has swung the school curriculum towards an emphasis on academic knowledge and exams.
Young Enterprise, the UK’s largest enterprise education, believes this ignores a huge amount of evidence of the inspirational and empowering effect that 'learning by doing' and inviting volunteers from business into the classroom can have.
The danger of the Coalition’s approach is that it is squeezing enterprise education out of the classroom.
Currently Young Enterprise gives 250,000 young people a year the opportunity to learn about the world of work at first hand from business people.
Some 30,000 older ones even got the chance to run their own real businesses for a year on one of our schemes, the Company Programme.
But the new heavy emphasis on the academic approach is in danger of excluding the benefits of Young Enterprise’s ‘learning by doing’ philosophy.
Mr Smith, Managing Partner of AndersonBick Consultants LLP, said: ‘The new Government’s approach lacks a focus on the skills, attitudes and behaviours that young people actually need in their working lives.’
‘Young people need skills like teamwork, presentation, reliability, honesty, integrity, and punctuality that employers look for.’
His message to employers was just as direct:
‘My message to business is: don’t just sit in meetings moaning about the attitude of British workers, get yourself and your employees out amongst young people as business mentors.’

Young Enterprise will present the Charter to Parliament in October 2011.

Here is what it actually says:

We, the undersigned:

• believe that the future of the UK economy depends on our ability to equip young people with the skills, attitudes and aspirations they will need to succeed as tomorrow's enterprising employees, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Through working together to invest in young people now, we will drive long term economic growth and increase the competitiveness of the UK in the global economy.
• recognise that Young Enterprise has the unparalleled experience, expertise and a history of proven impact to lead the drive for a better skilled UK workforce by connecting business, educators and young people to inspire each other through enterprise.
• strongly support Young Enterprise's conviction that all young people, must be given opportunities to:
  • Gain experience of entrepreneurship during their time in education and beyond.
  • Develop the employability skills, behaviours and attitudes they need to succeed in work.
  • Be empowered to shape the future of business and enterprise in the UK.

We call for:

1. Government to prioritise and support outstanding enterprise education in schools, colleges and universities; business, employability and entrepreneurship education to be placed within the statutory curriculum.
2. Employers to acknowledge the crucial role they can play in the development of their future workforce and to support, nurture and enable staff to volunteer time to pass on their business experience and skills to the next generation; 10,000 volunteer days to be dedicated to enterprise education during 2011/12.
3. Schools, colleges and universities to value and facilitate opportunities for young people of all ages to take part in stimulating enterprise activities throughout their educational journey; another 500 schools, colleges and Universities to commit to a dramatic increase in their employer engagement during 2011/12.

We pledge to invest time, talent and financial resource to bring about the step change required to ensure that the next generation of young people have the enterprise skills and inspiration needed to drive the UK economy forward.

Sign up to the charter here