Peter Jones claims youth enterprise schemes 'put good money after bad'
by WIN Admin — published in Press Releases
Peter Jones, the Dragons' Den panellist and mobile phone entrepreneur, has labelled the Government's youth enterprise initiatives a waste of money.
Mr Jones, who is chairman of one of the organisations behind a scheme called Enterprise UK, said some of its plans were "putting good money after bad".
Instead, Mr Jones wants the Government to help him adapt an enterprise curriculum he has developed with Edexcel, the qualifications awarding group, to use in schools.
Speaking at the launch of the third National Enterprise Academy last week at Sheffield City College, Mr Jones expressed his frustration that despite the Government's rhetoric about supporting enterprise education, it had not yet contacted him.
"[I want them to say] Peter Jones has spent enough money. He's done a good job. Let's do it. I have not received a phone call and I would like to," he said. "I want what we have got to go into our central school system because it's worked. I want my son to have this as a curriculum."
He added: "I am asking for a meeting with the current government. I want David Cameron to pick up the phone and say 'Peter Jones, we are not going to allow the last three years of your life and the millions of pounds you have invested to go to waste'."
Mr Jones hopes that around 30,000 students will attend enterprise academies by 2015, and has plans to open six more across the UK using £9m of public funding that has been matched by private sector sponsors like Orange. The students receive a level two or three BTEC diploma.
At the same time Mr Jones is overseeing an overhaul of Enterprise UK, which received £20m of public money for enterprise promotion.
He described as "totally wrong" the organisation's campaign for engaging schools in enterprise education, called Make Your Mark.
The campaign includes a national competition that will launch the Government-backed Global Enterprise Week in November, as well as initiatives like "Tenner", where 40,000 schoolchildren are given £10 each to inspire them to make a profit from their ideas. Mr Jones lent £100,000 this year to Tenner.
"It's a flawed concept, putting good money after bad," said Mr Jones of the Make Your Mark campaign.
Mr Jones also singled out Young Enterprise, a charity which exposes teenagers to the challenges of setting up and running a company, for criticism. "We don't need another Young Enterprise. The learnings are not passed [from school to school]," he said.
However, John May, Young Enterprise chief executive, countered: "Last year we inspired more than 30,000 young people to get involved in setting up and running their own Young Enterprise companies. Our company programme alumni are more passionate about their jobs, more successful in their careers and twice as likely to start their own business as their peers."
Source http://bit.ly/clTzhX