UCL comment on Lord Young's Enterprise for All report

Commenting on the recommendations included in Lord Young's third and final report to the Prime Minister on enterprise, Enterprise for All, Timothy Barnes, Director of UCL Advances - UCL's centre for entrepreneurship - said: "Lord Young's report has looked at the complete path of enterprise education, from the early school years to university, for the first time.

There is real value in doing this. UCL is an international leader among Higher Education in providing enterprise skills training and direct support for entrepreneurial students looking to start a business. Bringing Higher, Further, Secondary and Primary education together is timely and welcome."

The report calls for every university to have a plan for student enterprise, credit-bearing enterprise courses available to all students, an enterprise society, a student business start-up programme, support for social enterprises and for their participation in initiatives to measure the quality of these activities.

UCL is cited in the report as a university that has "a strong commitment to student enterprise, through a package of entrepreneurship training for all its students, as well as student business advisers, investment funds, incubation space and support for social enterprise."

"We believe it is vital that entrepreneurial talent is nurtured wherever it is found - and I'm pleased to see that Lord Young's report recognises that," Barnes added. "Ultimately, we want to offer an enterprise experience to every student that wants one, in every year of their studies."

"Arguably, the activities proposed for universities in Enterprise for All, should really be seen as the minimum standard that the sector seeks to attain. By having a dedicated department in UCL Advances that reaches across the university, UCL has delivered all of these activities for several years and we are now looking to explore new initiatives that will expand the envelope."

Lord Young, a graduate of UCL, has also recommended the Fiver Challenge be rolled out in schools across the country. UCL is also supportive of promoting entrepreneurship in schools and is already working to promote enterprise in schools through our Citrus Saturday initiative.

"Over the last three years, we've had hundreds of children take part nationwide in setting up their own lemonade stands through the tools we give them to learn about and set up their own business," said Jack Wratten, manager of Citrus Saturday.

"Our approach to promoting enterprise is a real success story - changing the lives of young people across the country and inspiring many others to pursue a future as an entrepreneur. It's been such a successful approach that it is being run this year across Europe and as far afield as Mozambique."

Citrus Saturday was founded in 2011 by Timothy Barnes, Director of UCL Advances, UCL's centre for entrepreneurship. The aim of the day is to inspire young people to consider setting up their own business. Following a pilot project run by UCL in Camden, London, the initiative has since gone global, with Citrus Saturday running in Ireland, Spain, Greece, Swaziland, Germany, France, Greece, Belgium and Mozambique as well as locations across the UK with larger events in London and Edinburgh.

Designed to be as realistic as possible to starting a new business, Citrus Saturday participants repay a small start-up loan then keep the profits. They work to plan their business, design a strategy then make and sell their products. The idea is that keeping their profits re-enforces the link between working hard and earning money and in doing so, can help change attitudes to work and the belief that children can change their own futures. This year, International Citrus Saturday will be on 5 July.

Links 

• UCL Advances
• Enterprise for All report
• Citrus Saturday

Image

• Lord Young & Timothy Barnes in UCL Main Quad