Enterprise Week kicks off

From today until Sunday, young, aspiring entrepreneurs can take advantage of over 1,000 events including competitions, lectures, seminars and film festivals.

Budding entrepreneurs aged between 14 and 30 in the East Midlands may attend a Business Boot Camp geared at overcoming barriers to success. London will feature an Enterprising Britain Summit, while Wednesday has been named Women's Enterprise Day.

The theme of Enterprise Week 2005 is networking, and organisers say the goal is to encourage more young people to start their own business and make their ideas happen.

The annual celebration of entrepreneurship is organised by Enterprise Insight, a body set up collectively by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Institute of Directors (IoD).

Enterprise Week is funded by the government's Small Business Service (SBS).

Absent from the consortium is the Forum of Private Business (FPB), which last week charged that Enterprise Week has little impact on enterprise in this country.

While hoping to stimulate an enterprise culture amongst young people, the organisation said the week-long commemoration does nothing to reduce taxes and red tape or anything to generally help a business climate it says is restricting British entrepreneurs.

"Of course young people will become entrepreneurs of the future, but the government should concentrate also on giving encouragement and support to the entrepreneurs of today," said Len Collinson, FPB national chairman.

"The taxpayers' cash used to fund Enterprise Week might be better spent on stimulating enterprise in disadvantaged areas and ethnic groups. Experience shows that people in these groups, along with experienced 34-44 year olds, have the best track record for launching successful businesses."

Further information on the range of events is available at www.starttalkingideas.org/enterpriseweek.