Old-fashioned entrepreneurs must modernise the language and customs of enterprise and make way for the next generation, a coalition of business organisations, charities and government have urged.
Young people show a strong desire to be their own boss and run their own, but outdated language and role models prevent them from realising their dreams, according to a new report from Enterprise Insight.
“The language and icons of 1980s enterprise culture now mean as little to young people as a Rubik’s Cube or shoulder pads,” said Kevin Steele, chief executive of Enterprise Insight, a group consisting of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), The Prince’s Trust and government departments, among others.
“Two decades after the last great enterprise boom of the mid-‘80s we are still using the same entrepreneurs to promote enterprise in 2005.
“It is not that there is nothing to learn from a Richard Branson or Anita Roddick, but the [report] concludes that young people are no longer inspired by these people in the same way as they are by successful entrepreneurs in their own community or people their own age.”
The study also found that fears of failure and the pressure from parents, teachers and friends to find a job also lend to a culture that prevents young people from starting up.
Steele said that “conveyor-belt education” is creating a mindset where young people are more inclined to play things safe than look for opportunities in enterprise.
In order to create a culture where young people are encouraged to start-up, he said there must be a fundamental shift in policies.
A new national strategy must recognise and embrace that young people will be enterprising if they are supported, the report states. It called for better means of access to networks that young people can use to make their ideas happen.
