Successful students will gain a better understanding of how business works and how to be an effective employee. Most students will seek employment as a traditional route to earn a living. As jobs become more scarce and insecure young people should find that having the skills and confidence to run a business is an advantage.

Business Wise has used the experience gained by running courses directly with students to develop training for tutors working with disaffected young people. By training tutors Business Wise will be able to reach more students. Many more "at risk" young people will experience the excitement of setting up and running their own business.

The courses have proved popular with students and Pupil Referral Units alike. Courses are run in 4 London boroughs and a centre has been opened in Scotland.

Business Wise LEARNING by EARNING Mission

Business Wise aims to develop the entrepreneurial skills of "at risk" youth, to enable young people to take control of their lives and future by encouraging economical and social involvement in their communities through running a business.

There are a lot of unhappy workers in the UK who are trapped in jobs they detest and who feel no sense of accomplishment in their work. It is therefore surprising that adults with such negative attitudes to their jobs almost without exception urge their children solely towards getting a job.

We hope when our children grow up or our pupils leave school that they can find a good job with a reputable firm, receive good fringe benefits and find long-term security. Even though this goal is proving elusive now, many adults persist in promoting this limited vision of the future.

Like most generations before us, we are presenting a vision which is based selectively on our own past experience. If we continue to prepareyoung people for a world which no longer exists the social, economic and individual costs will be incalculably high.

By providing practical entrepreneurial training, you will open young people's minds to the full range of employment choices and patterns. Your students will be learning skills which they will find valuable throughout their working lives, and which will help prepare them for the realities of today's job market. The course can also help show young people, resorting to crime how they can lead productive lives by legitimate means.

Target Group

The LEARN TO EARN, EARN TO LEARN™ programme is targeted at those who are least likely to be exposed to entrepreneurship within their family, but are highly likely to have many of the qualities it takes to be an entrepreneur - resilience, propensity to risk take, and a streetwise knowledge.

Business Wise entrepreneurs are likely to be drawn from young people between the ages of 15 to 18 years old. Many of these young people will have encountered difficulties in formal education and training schemes. A typical student may be outside the formal school system, that is, excluded, a school refuser or truanting. The target group includes disaffected young people attending schools, colleges or "at risk" youth connected with voluntary organisations, youth services and other agencies.

Unlike many schemes for 14-16 year old young people excluded from school or with minimal employment prospects it does not seek simply to keep them occupied. It aims to give them skills highly necessary for their future.

Business Wise Objectives

1. to facilitate the delivery of the LEARN T0 EARN entrepreneurial courses to "at risk" young people.

2. to provide In-service Training (INSET) to teachers, youth workers and other significant adults tutoring young people.

3. to co-ordinate access and support to businesses and other organisations.

Equal Opportunities Statement

Business Wise is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for every person working within the management and administration of Business Wise. This commitment i5 extended to include tutors and students engaged in courses regardless of ability, age, class, disability, health, gender, language, marital status, racial, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation or employment status.

Business Wise requires commitment from each individual working with or employed by Business Wise to accept and support thc Code of Conduct. By contracting to work with or for Business Wise you are required to accept the code of conduct and support its implementation.

Code of Conduct

• encourages respect for the individual;

• individually and collectively challenge prejudice and discrimination and the structures which perpetuate them.

• challenge stereotyped images and in their place promotes positive images and role models.

• declares as unacceptable any language, action or expressed belief that reveals prejudice or encourages prejudice in others.

• tutors shall make every effort to avoid stereotyping when advising, disciplining, or rewarding students, and share with them our high expectations of their potential.

• staff must also recognise their own prejudices and seek to act in a just and non discriminatory way.

• visitors, parents, carers, community groups and partner agencies should be made aware of the Equal Opportunities Statement.

Language

The language used and accepted by tutors will convey messages far beyond the content of a course. Tutors should encourage students and other individuals involved in courses to use and promote language that conforms to the Equal Opportunities Statement.

The Equal Opportunities Statement aims to support policies of host organisations and clients. It is an essential aspect of the teaching and methods embodied in the courses offered.

Business Facts And Figures

• There are about 5 million businesses in the UK.

• Around 4,000 new businesses are started each week.

• 1.5 million new jobs have been created by small businesses since 19~0.

• 150,000 new jobs have been created by big business since 1980.

• In 1990, big business lost 1.7 million jobs.

• Almost half of all innovations or new products are created by small, entrepreneurial companies.

• 36% of the workforce in the UK works for small business.

• 25% of gross national product (GNP) is produced by small businesses.

• 96% of all businesses are small businesses.

But

• 90% of people setting up a business will not be running that business in five years' time.

Why Teach Self - Employment And Entrepreneurship?

Answers to some of most frequently asked questions.

How does entrepreneurial training enhance the student's prospects for employment?

Entrepreneurial skills have a value across employment types: they are as useful whether your student graduates seek jobs, or seek customers for their own enterprises. The self employment model provides each student with an opportunity to learn about the full range of business functions.

The Industry in Education report Towards Employability concluded that the lack of 'employability qualities' among school and college leavers may be costing Britain £8 billion or more. Because of the lack of enthusiasm, work ethic, reliability, self-discipline and consideration when dealing with people, prevalent amongst school leavers, there is a growing trend amongst employers to recruit older applicants in preference to school leavers. The teaching of values, attitudes and skills for employment is central to the Business Wise approach.

As jobs become scarce, particularly for school leavers in the inner city, your students will find having the knowledge and confidence to run their own enterprises a valuable advantage.

There are a lot of unhappy workers in the U K trapped in jobs they detest and with little sense of fulfilment in their work. Given that many have negative attitudes towards salaried employment, it is surprising that we exclusively encourage young people towards becoming employees. Entrepreneurial training opens your students' minds to the full range of employment types and opportunities.

What skills does entrepreneurial training give young people?

It encourages a problem solving approach and creativity. It develops their maths and English by practical application. It develops their social skills and ability to communicate with others, especially adults. It teaches them sound money management skills. A basic knowledge of business which is relevant to their lives. It encourages them to see a direct link between what they learn in the classroom and their future prospects.

BUT doesn't teaching entrepreneurship encourage greed and materialism?

For those operating small businesses, the main motivation for starting a business is not purely financial. Young people starting businesses do 50 because they have an interest in a certain area, because they desire more autonomy, or because they were unfulfilled when working for other people. In the first few years of running a business the personal financial rewards for the person setting up a business are often lower than comparable salaried work. Only when the business actually takes off, can their earnings potential leap ahead of salaried workers.

It is important to remember that greed and materialism is a moral issue which transcends all social and economic areas of society. It remains an important issue whether you train young people to become entrepreneurs or encourage them to pursue traditional careers or jobs.

On a Business Wise LEARN to EARN course ethical behaviour and standards are addressed. If pursuit of profit is not the key motivation for starting up a business, it is certainly not the sole motivation for running a business. High prices and profits gained without regard to customer service and quality products will soon result in failure.

BUT isn't self-employment a more marginal and insecure form of work?

The number of self-employed people has grown faster in Britain than in any other European country since the mid 1970's, rising by 8O per cent in two decades to 14 per cent of the workforce. At the same time, the proportion of people moving from unemployment to self employment has more than doubled. Increasingly it is becoming the only realistic option to unemployment in some areas of the UK.

Full employment and finding life-long salaried employment are no longer embraced as politically or economically possible. Many larger companies have had to slim down their workforces and recruit the self-employed for contract and project work which would previously have been delivered by salaried staff. Coupled with a decline in jobs in the manufacturing sector, computerisation of manual and administrative tasks, and companies re-locating to countries where the labour costs are a fraction of those in the UK, the permanence and security of salaried positions in a growing number of sectors can no longer be guaranteed.

If you feel you would like to help Business Wise, financially or by in-kind donations

For full details to contact Business Wise through the youth organisation Fairbridge:

Tel: (+44) 171 928 1704

Fax: (+44) 171 928 6016

Address:

1 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7PL

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