Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to encourage school leavers to start up their own business ventures.

The Business GCSE (first taught from 2017) should help pupils to become commercially minded and enterprising. Financial literacy is statutory within the national curriculum as part of Citizenship for 11 to 16 year olds. Schools are also free to cover enterprise education within personal, social, health and economic education. Personal characteristics like resilience and problem-solving are crucial for setting up a business. Good schools offer a range of opportunities for pupils to develop these attributes through activities such as debating, sport, volunteering, the National Citizen Service or the Cadets.

The government’s careers strategy for England, published in December 2017, aims to give young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to learn from employers about work and entrepreneurship. It introduces a new expectation that every school should offer every young person at least seven encounters with employers, including those who are self-employed. Multiple encounters will inspire young people and give them the opportunity to learn about what work is like and what skills are important to successfully run a business and succeed in work.

The Careers & Enterprise Company’s network of Enterprise Advisers of senior volunteers from business help schools and colleges to work with local businesses. Over 40 per cent of Enterprise Advisers come from businesses with less than 50 employees. Investment funding delivered by The Careers & Enterprise Company to support schools and colleges has already provided more than 540,000 employer encounters for young people in England. This funding scales up proven programmes with track records, for example Young Enterprise. A new £2.5 million employer encounters investment fund has been launched and activity in schools and colleges will start from January 2019.