Manifesto - Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise 2015 Manifesto: Building Generations of Game Changers

Engage. Inspire. Empower.

The challenge

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About us

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The solution

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Our asks

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The problem uncovered

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What and why 5 skills?

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Why listen to us?

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Our commitment to you

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Working with partners

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We have the solution – be part of it

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The challenge Young Enterprise is calling on all political parties to take bold action and address the skills crisis facing young people today. In our 2015 Manifesto we outline specific general election asks and urge parliamentarians and policy makers to adopt them. We identify four problem areas: the skills gap and the education system; high youth unemployment; the fundamental need for financial capability and a changing economy. We invite business leaders, educationalists and organisations working with young people to support our call to action, to unite and work together to build a generation of game changers who have the right skills to succeed in work and in life. We believe all young people should leave education being competent in 5 key skills: communication, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity and resilience. We all have a stake in this investment. The window of opportunity is now. If we want to compete on a global stage and if we want the UK to be economically competitive, the time to act is upon us. Today politicians are talking about how to rescue the UK economy. Tomorrow the question will be: how do we grow sustainably? We need a long-term, sustainable skills strategy that is founded on enterprise and financial education – one that works for teachers, college tutors, youth workers, employers and young people.

Michael Mercieca, Chief Executive


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About us Young Enterprise is the UK’s leading enterprise and financial education charity. Following pfeg’s (Personal Finance Education Group) merger into Young Enterprise, we are a specialist ‘one stop shop’ for students and teachers, empowering young people to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need for work and in life. We deliver a range of engaging and accessible programmes for 4-25 year olds, from one-day masterclasses to year-long projects. We take young people on a learner development journey arming them with employability skills through real-life, hands-on experiences.

Enterprise education

Financial education

Enterprise education is the application of creative ideas to practical solutions. It aims to raise awareness of the mind-set and skills required to respond to opportunities, needs and challenges such as problem-solving, teamwork, communication, creativity and resilience. It can be applied across the curriculum, extending beyond business to a wide range of practical and social skills.

Financial education is a planned programme of study that equips young people with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their money well. It ensures learners grow to understand their attitude to risk, and become aware of their own behaviour and emotions when making financial decisions through real-life scenarios.

The solution A long-term, sustainable skills strategy that is founded on enterprise and financial education – one that works for teachers, college tutors, youth workers, employers and young people. It must:

1 Be relevant, accessible and available to all young people regardless of their starting points

2 Be embedded in all schools, colleges and universities across the UK 3 Be supported by all political parties 4 Be owned by key government departments with equal accountability 5 Enable all young people to leave the education system equipped with the 5 key skills of communication, teamwork, resilience, problem solving and creativity.

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Our asks We are calling on all political parties to:

1 Tackle the skills gap identified by employers commit to review and assess UK skills capacity and track the destination of pupils and how well they have been prepared for next steps after school, college or university by assessing their individual competencies in the 5 key skills. This could be through the remit of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills

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Agree a long-term, sustainable skills strategy working closely with employers, education providers, civil servants and the youth sector on how we place enterprise and financial education at the heart of skills policy

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Launch an Enterprise Skills Passport to enable young people to attain digital badges for their enterprise work to show continuous progression in the 5 key skills. These can then be shown to future employers to demonstrate enterprise and financial capability skills. This will also address the perennial problem of how to populate a school-leaver’s CV

4 Make financial education

statutory in primary schools and strongly encourage academies and free schools to also incorporate it

5 Make Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE) education statutory

in primary and secondary schools and strongly encourage academies and free schools to also incorporate it. This would help to provide consistency of access to 5 skills development, offering young people an opportunity to ‘learn by doing’

6 Ensure Teacher Training programmes and Initial Teacher Training incorporate the 5 skills

into their curricula so that new teachers have the knowledge and confidence to incorporate high quality learning opportunities in their teaching plans and to become champions in their schools

7 Work with Ofsted to build in reporting on

enterprise education and financial education into their inspections.


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The problem uncovered 1

The skills gap and the education system

At the heart of the national curriculum is the requirement that education prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. This provides schools with a clear mandate to help young people develop sustainable skills. Shining the spotlight on the skills gap and calling for a long-term national skills strategy will create the momentum to help teachers and college tutors drive this agenda forward. It will help ensure all young people maximise their aspirations and potential, whereas currently academic failure usually leads to reduced and impaired life chances. We also believe it is important for free schools and academies to invest in closing the skills gap. What we know from employers

88%

70%

43%

of UK employers say it is difficult to find good quality applicants for entry-level jobs1

of UK employers say the education system is not equipping young people with the right skills for them to enter the workforce2

88% of British businesses recognise that a workforce with the right skills is critical to the growth of their organisation, with another 73% believing a skills crisis will hit the UK within the next three years7.

50%

63%

92% of employers say it is important to offer enterprise education as part of the national curriculum in schools yet it is no longer statutory – neither is Personal Social Health and Economic (PSHE) education4

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The FSB ‘Voice of Small Business’ Member Survey found that access to skilled staff is cited as the third biggest barrier to growth5, and half of employers said they did not believe local schools or colleges prepare young people to a sufficient standard for businesses and employers6

73%

of employers name ‘aptitudes to work’ as the most important factor when recruiting school and college leavers and 85% name ‘attitudes towards work’. Only 30% name academic results3

2 High youth unemployment

What we know from teachers Future employment prospects

Youth unemployment has fallen over the past year, but at 16% for June to August 2014, it is still higher than the pre-downturn trough of 13.8% for December to February 2008. The number of unemployed 16 to 24 year olds in June to August 2014 was

733,000

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C2DE 12%

The unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds remains consistently 2.5 times higher than the headline rate of 6.5%11 for the 16 to 64 age bracket. ABC1 34%

34% of teachers from ABC1 schools feel happy about the future employment prospects of their students. This drops significantly to 12% with teachers from C2DE schools8

What we know from parents

20% On average, only 20% of parents feel happy about the future employment prospects of their children9.

Young Enterprise and Citi Foundation Opinium Research of 418 senior managers in the UK, Spain, France and Germany, 2014. 2 Young Enterprise and Citi Foundation Opinium Research of 418 senior managers in the UK, Spain, France and Germany, 2014. 3 CBI Skills Survey, 2014 http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/2809181/ embargo_00.01_4_july_cbi_pearson_education_and_skills_ survey_2014.pdf 4 Young Enterprise and Citi Foundation Opinium Research of 418 senior managers in the UK, Spain, France and Germany, 2014 5 FSB ‘Voice of Small Business’ Index, 2013 6 FSB Panel Survey June 2012 7 The Prince’s Trust, The Skills Crunch – Upskilling The Workforce Of The Future, 2014 http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/PDF/SkillsCrunch.pdf 8 Employability Skill Research, National Schools Partnership for Young Enterprise, July 2014 9 Employability Skill Research, National Schools Partnership for Young Enterprise, July 2014 10 House of Commons briefing note, 15 October 2014 11 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_367199.pdf 1


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The problem uncovered continued

3A fundamental need

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for financial capability

A changing economy

Lord Young’s Enterprise for All report stated that young people ‘are far more likely to have multiple careers with various employers, ranging from global multinationals to small and micro employers’15 and they are more likely than ever to run their own business.

Young people today grow up in an increasingly complex world requiring them to make difficult decisions that will often have a significant impact on their future, more so than in previous generations. Young people need to make informed choices and take responsibility for their own actions, for example when taking out a credit card or a phone contract, and if faced with tuition fees. They also bear more financial risk in adulthood due to increased life expectancy, decreases in welfare benefits, and uncertain economic and job prospects.

We also know:

We know that young people engage with the financial services sector at an early age.

95.5%

Research undertaken by pfeg identifies that12 : 95.5% of firms in the UK employ fewer than ten people16 64% of children get their first bank or building society account before they start secondary school

58% of children bought something online before or had something bought for them online for the first time before they were 12

Nearly three quarters of 15-year-olds with a bank account have a debit card.

ADULTS 35%

We know that young people have exposure to debt at a much earlier age than previous generations:

18-30 55% 55% of 18 to 30 year olds aim to start a business, compared to 35% of the total adult population17.

More than half of children aged 10 to 17 said they saw advertising for loans ‘often’ or ‘all of the time’.13 OECD evidence shows that internationally younger generations have lower levels of financial capability compared with their parents.14 Engaging and memorable financial education is needed now more than ever.

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BBA/pfeg/YouGov survey, September 2013 The debt trap: exposing the problem of debt on children. The Children’s Society and Step-Change 2014 14 http://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/TrustFund2013_ OECD_INFE_Finl_Ed_for_Youth_and_in_Schools.pdf 15 Enterprise for All, June 2014, Lord Young 16 BIS Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions, 2013 17 Populus (2013) RBS Youth Enterprise Tracker Q3, 2013 12 13

What and why 5 skills? 1 Communication

Young people need to be given the opportunity to extend their communication skills beyond the classroom audience, so that when they enter the workplace they can communicate confidently and coherently in a variety of different situations with colleagues at all levels.

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Teamwork Enabling young people to develop teamworking skills shows them what can be achieved when people work together. It also teaches them patience and tolerance – both important skills in the workplace.

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Problem-solving Young people need to be given the opportunity to problem-solve in real-life situations, so that they have the opportunity to fail without criticism, learn from that experience and try again.

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reativity C Creativity can be applied in all areas of work and life, whether that’s using creativity to solve a problem, design new processes or develop new ideas. Young people need to be given the opportunity to test their creative ideas in a range of different ways through ‘learning by doing’.

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esilience R Young people need to experience failure as part of their learning, so that rather than give up when things don’t go to plan, they can then apply that learning in new situations. Through learning about resilience, young people can also develop humility, ‘grit’, selfmanagement and tenacity – all important skills in work and life.


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Why listen to us? Since 1962, Young Enterprise has worked with over 4 million young people across the UK. We work with over 250,000 young people delivering more than 2.3 million enterprise teaching hours every year. We know what we are talking about. Our ethos is learning by doing; learning to be enterprising, learning to manage money well. We know from our research that enterprise education works:

Since 2009 our annual pfeg My Money Week has helped 4.3 million young people understand money.

92%

We have 14 years of experience providing transformational support and training to over 20,000 teachers in schools, colleges and other places of education.

92% of Young Enterprise students increase at least one employability competency, with the biggest development being problem solving18

We are supported by more than 6,000 volunteers and 3,500 businesses working with young people aged 4 to 25 in schools, colleges and universities.

90%

94%

We are part of a global network, JA-YE, that operates in over 120 countries and is powered by 400,000 volunteers and mentors from all sectors of society, reaching 10.2 million students around the world.

26%

42%

42% of Young Enterprise alumni go on to set up a business, compared to 26% of non-alumni19

90% of teachers agree that Young Enterprise students increased selfawareness in their own capabilities and potential with 94% agreeing they increased self-awareness in their own strengths and weaknesses20

The Education and Employers Taskforce has found young people who undertook 4 or more activities ‘involving employers or local business people providing things like mentoring, enterprise competitions, careers advice, and CV or interview practice’ were five times less likely to be not in employment, education or training (NEET) than those who had no such engagement while at school20.

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Young Enterprise and Citi Foundation Opinium Research of 418 senior managers in the UK, Spain, France and Germany, 2014. 19 Young Enterprise Company Programme 2013-2014 Impact Report 20 Young Enterprise Company Programme 2013-2014 Impact Report 21 http://www.educationandemployers.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/06/its_who_you_meet_final_26_06_12.pdf 18

Case study: Kirsty Timm Kirsty Timm, from Yorkshire, overcame extreme shyness and a severe lack of confidence to set up her own murder mystery party business, Lighthouse Entertainment. She was named Journey Award Runner-Up at the Company Programme UK Final. Kirsty, who refused to speak to others for fear of being laughed at, took on the role of Sales Director, working with a team of 10 as she aimed to give her life a sense of direction. Kirsty said: “I have always carried a fear that no one was interested in what I had to say and have always longed for more confidence and self-belief. Up until now this has constantly held me back in life but Young Enterprise has given me the belief in myself to participate, realise that I do have a voice and do make valid points and that there is no reason for me to avoid people. “For the first time I now feel happy when speaking to people. At a trade fair in Stratford Upon Avon I even started grabbing strangers and asked them if they were interested in murder! I found myself telling people what to do and was frustrated my team weren’t approaching more people. I couldn’t believe it, it was like watching someone else, I suddenly felt like a different person.” She now holds regular murder mystery parties in which clients are served a three course meal while a local acting group bring the plotline to life. The cost of a ticket is £16 and Kirsty takes a £5 profit from each. Kirsty said: “The experience of helping to set up and run a business has really given me a new found confidence. I feel more determined to go far in life and know now that I’m good at working in a team. I am much more ambitious and will try not to let anything hold me back.”

“I am much more ambitious and will try not to let anything hold me back.”


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Case study: ACE, UK Final Winners 2014 ACE, from Southborough High School in Kingston-upon-Thames won the UK Company Programme final in July 2014. They went on to represent the UK at the JA-YE Europe final in Talinn, Estonia, coming second overall and winning the Fed-Ex Access Award. The team, all 6th Form students, developed their product; the self-adhesive Attache, following extensive market research and focus groups, and looking at existing products such as car phone holders that are manufactured to hold one type of device only. Difficulties arose when their order was delayed by nearly two weeks, meaning they missed the Christmas market and struggled during the holiday season. They bounced back, focusing on their USP and branding in January to pick up the market again, working with a Chinese student in their 6th Form to overcome language barriers. The team also had to learn to work together and overcome disagreements. ACE’s Sales Director Kiran Arokiasamy explained: “Southborough is a boys’ school, so as a group of 22 boys there were sometimes communication issues. We all learned how to work through any disagreements and I can say the whole team really developed their communication skills; from those who were shy at the beginning to those who were already confident – we all improved so much. “We also really developed our leadership and basic business skills. That’s what Young Enterprise does – it changes you. “I’ve improved my confidence, team working and business understanding. There are things I never knew I could do before, and it’s such an amazing feeling to know you can do this. “We’re a state school who came out of nowhere to represent the UK in Europe. You can’t top that.”

“We also really developed our leadership and basic business skills. That’s what Young Enterprise does – it changes you.”

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Our commitment to you We will continue to deliver high-quality, relevant programmes across the UK, supporting our teachers and encouraging young people to embrace new ways of learning and new ways of thinking about their futures. To achieve this Young Enterprise needs to raise £6.4 million annually.

It costs around £38 to support one young person to take part in a Young Enterprise activity and 90 pence of every £1 received is spent directly on delivery.

In 2014/2015: We are able to work on this scale thanks to the support of over 6,000 volunteers. Young Enterprise England and Wales has 120 volunteer area boards, 95 delivery staff, 12 fundraising staff and 20 in administration. Across the UK, we plan to work with over 290,000 young people in:

4% 818 primary schools

38%

51% 2410 secondary schools

22%

168 FE Colleges

36 HE Institutions

2446

26,140

new businesses will be launched through YE Programmes

young people will take part in our flagship Company Programme.


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Working with partners Young Enterprise is committed to working closely with employers, large or small, to place greater emphasis on the 5 key skills. This can be by asking them to allow time for their employees to volunteer in local schools, mentoring young people on the Young Enterprise Company Programme or by asking them to offer young people inspirational work experience opportunities. We will do this through our three-year partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) or our close links with other employers’ bodies like the CIPD. We also commit to continue to working closely with education providers, teachers, college tutors and universities, and provide training resources and advice.

We have the solution – be part of it Young Enterprise engages young people in a journey; our programmes empower them to realise their potential, to acquire the skills and confidence they need to learn, to work and to live. Whether it’s running a business for a year, taking part in an enterprise challenge or networking with business leaders, we enable young people to shine beyond the curriculum and discover why the skills for work are the skills for life.

We cannot do this alone. We are calling for all political parties to commit to helping young people on their journey. To help them get on the right path to reach their rightful destination. 12

We would like to thank all our present, past and future supporters who have made our work possible. We are proud to be supported by some of the finest organisations working in the UK. But we are also supported by a great many local firms and organisations who generously make a commitment in line with their resources.

For more information please email [email protected] or call 020 7549 1980 www.young-enterprise.org.uk/5skills Twitter: @youngenterprise #5skills #startyoung


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Young Enterprise Head office: Yeoman House Sekforde Street London EC1R 0HF Registered Charity No.313697