Sir Anthony Seldon calls for schools to encourage entrepreneurship

The country’s prosperity is threatened by the failure of many schools to encourage entrepreneurship, Sir Anthony Seldon, a former head credited with turning round two schools, has warned.

Sir Anthony is Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham where the world’s first undergraduate venture creation programme was set up ten years ago. The University’s BSc Business Enterprise is the only undergraduate course in the UK where students receive up to £5,000 to help them set up businesses by pitching to a “Dragon’s Den” style panel of business people.

Sir Anthony, who was the first to introduce mindfulness lessons to schools a decade ago, said: “Our future prosperity is threatened by the failure of schools to encourage entrepreneurship and enterprise. Many schools still think that they should just help students to get jobs and don’t realise that it is vital that they should also be encouraging them to start their own businesses. If the economy is not to be blighted it is essential that schools take immediate action to teach skills and generate enthusiasm for an entrepreneurial approach to life.”

Sir Anthony has drawn up a ten-point plan to encourage schools to teach entrepreneurship:

1. Schools should create a learning environment which presents real-life challenges.

2. Teach children in a way they are equipped to set up their own businesses, as well as working for someone else.

3. Give pupils a chance to take the theories they have learned in the classroom and apply them to real life, by setting up businesses and projects including pitching to Dragon’s Den-type panels in school, so that they can react to feedback on their ideas.

4. Schools should encourage pupils to go beyond just buying and selling products and teach the whole the range of skills required for life.

5. Help students to identify their existing skills and develop new ones which lend themselves to entrepreneurship.

6. Teach the new everyday skills such as personal finance, self-promotion and digital awareness.

7. Schools should encourage calculating risk to develop pupils’ decision-making and problem-solving skills and should teach innovation, leadership, resilience and team building.

8. Move the focus away from just getting pupils through the interview and prepare them for the real world of entrepreneurship.

9. Connect disadvantaged students with useful networks to encourage aspiration and social confidence.

10. Provide opportunities to meet a full range of inspirational as well as aspiring entrepreneurs

University of Buckingham Business Enterprise Programme Director Nigel Adams added: “Buckingham is leading the way with an innovative approach to education which has proved to be very successful. We were the first in the world to offer an undergraduate venture creation programme which has led to students running businesses from importing wooden sunglasses to establishing a Nigerian wedding planning website.”

Other businesses created by students currently include a gym wear business and a business producing bilingual books for very young children.