Brian Souter aims to steer young people into starting their own businesses
Written on September 23, 2011 by Douglas R
ONE of Scotland’s most prominent entrepreneurs, Sir Brian Souter, is urging Britain’s schools to take greater steps to encourage enterprise among young people in an effort to secure a sustained economic recovery. The boss of transport heavyweight Stagecoach, who has become increasingly vocal on social issues in recent weeks, argues that less emphasis should be placed on academic achievement in schools and more attention should be paid to fostering a spirit ofADVERTISEMENT entrepreneurship.
He believes urgent action is required to improve the employability of Britain’s youngsters as youth unemployment reaches record highs – one in five young people is currently out of work.
Souter said: “Entrepreneurs are the engine room of the economy and crucial to a sustained recovery. Without question, we have people with potential in our own country, but I think more needs to be done at an earlier stage to nurture new business talent in the education system.
“Too much emphasis is placed on academic achievement and not enough on encouraging new ideas and enterprise. We need to change that.
“We need to help young people become more employable and develop the practical skills that can make a difference between a slide into benefit dependency and a ladder to economic opportunity.”
Stagecoach is entering into a three-year partnership with the Enterprise Education Trust, which will help fund hundreds of 16- to 19-year-olds to go on “business awareness” courses.
Souter, who co-founded Stagecoach with his sister, Ann Gloag, in 1980, said: “Part of the solution is encouraging young people to see starting out in business as an exciting, rewarding and positive choice. At a time when public sector employment is shrinking, creating private sector jobs is more important than ever.
“Stagecoach started in the middle of one of the worst recessions for a generation, with mass unemployment, a collapse in manufacturing and evidence of social unrest. But out of that difficult environment, we launched a business that now employs nearly 35,000 people in the UK and North America. The challenge is to help people to see the current climate as an opportunity and not a barrier to business.”
Souter’s push to improve the skills of Britain’s young people came as the DIY giant B&Q yesterday announced it had chosen nine promising young individuals to serve on a “youth board”.
The young people, aged between 16 and 18, went through a three-month selection process to secure their place and the final winners included 16-year-old Harris Aslam from Fife.
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