Running real businesses in London

Young Enterprise London is a Business and Enterprise registered charity that is helping to give young people the best chance of success. It provides them with direct experience of learning to work efficiently as individuals and as team members - crucial qualities for continuing their personal and career development as adults.

Supported by the Learning & Skills Council, Deutsche Bank and London Chamber of Commerce, the Young Enterprise Company Programme in London has worked with over 9,000 young people in the last two years. The programme allows young people aged 14-19 to set up and run their own real-life business, raise share capital, open bank accounts, decide on a product or service, develop a business plan, trade and report to their shareholders - all with the support of a local business volunteer.

Through participating in Young Enterprise programmes students develop their enterprise knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes in a business context. They are personally responsible to their shareholders for the running of their business and are encouraged to assess and take calculated risks in doing so. They learn by doing, coping with a changing and evolving business, developing skills and learning from their own mistakes. Everyone who fully participates in the programme can also take a Young Enterprise Qualification, awarded by OCR.

Over 9,000 young people have set up and run 750 companies in the last two years and it is estimated that over the next five years a further 1,500 companies will be started by 18,000 young people.

Growth

Young Enterprise London has had phenomenal growth over the last five years and, with the support of partners, has been able to demonstrably make a real difference to a huge number of young people in London.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 621,000 18-24 year olds in the UK are unemployed, equating to 15% of London’s young people. This clearly demonstrates that a significant number of young people in the capital are excluded from the prosperity around them. Youth unemployment can have a lasting impact with research showing that young people who are not in education, employment or training can suffer a ‘wage penalty’ of 12-15% by the time they reach 42.

Unemployment and crime

There is an inextricable link between unemployment and crime. Nearly two thirds of young offenders are unemployed at the time of arrest. Coupled with this fact, many young offenders have low educational achievement often making rehabilitation difficult. Gang culture and postcode related violence is becoming more of an issue with the ‘ghettoisation’ of London. Unemployment damages young people’s confidence resulting in low self esteem and self worth. This lack of self belief, along with a lack of skills, is a key factor in excluding young people from successful independent living.

Young Enterprise programmes are aimed at those most at risk of educational underachievement. A recent study commissioned by the Prince’s Trust reveals that interventions helping young people to get into work, stay in education or avoid crime represent excellent value for money given the measurable costs of social exclusion.

Business community volunteers

This programme is also delivered by volunteers from the business community who act as positive role models. As a result of participating in Learn to Earn, young people gain an opportunity to explore and identify their aptitudes and abilities and match these with potential future careers. They gain an economic awareness of the link between what they do at school and their future life prospects and understand their own definition of success and how to set goals to achieve it.

Inspired to set up in business

One of the success stories of Young Enterprise is Sabirul Islam. Sabirul grew up in the borough of Tower Hamlets with the city and Canary Wharf just a 10-minute walk from where he lived. Even with the financial industries being very close, economic inequality was a key feature of the area where he was raised. At the age of 15 he started his web design business called Veyron Technology - which won the award for being the best Young Enterprise in Inner East London. Through Young Enterprise, Merrill Lynch saw him as a unique and talented individual and took him to New York in July 2006 where he learnt the basics of investment by witnessing live trading through the Dow Jones and New York Stock Market. The two-week programme inspired him to take risks and put what he learnt in New York into action. Three months later, he started trading part-time in the London Stock Exchange.

At 17 he was inspired to write his first book, ‘The World At Your Feet’. The book is an inspiration for all young people and aims to enable others to turn their entrepreneurial vision into reality by helping them exploit what he calls the ‘three strikes’ – intensity, integrity and intelligence.

Next steps

Young Enterprise London will continue to aim for increased student numbers and activities in more schools across all 33 London boroughs, which will translate into one million students by 2013. This level of participation will become more important, especially in schools in the most disadvantaged wards, and retention of existing schools involved in the programme will be measured more closely. Schools are likely to continue to receive specific funds for enterprise education and Young Enterprise London will proactively develop relationships with an existing customer base to ensure requirements are supported to the highest quality, providing the vital link with business.

The capital has 220 ‘challenging schools’ and it is the young people from these schools that Young Enterprise London particularly targets. The merits and benefits of participation in these programmes are well documented and the charity is working with schools to help open up opportunities to a greater number of students.

Find out more about the Enterprising Britain competition, and read about the other regional winners.