Gordon Brown’s bid to inject enterprise into every classroom by the end of the year has received an unprecedented boost by the world’s biggest probe into entrepreneurial activity.
Reporting their seventh annual findings, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found for the first time that enterprise training doubles the chance of a person becoming an entrepreneur.
The study, which polled over 32,000 UK adults, found that regardless of gender or educational level, undergoing some form of business education more than doubles the chance of start-up within three years.
GEM said the results showed women who have experienced business training are twice as likely to be engaged in some type of “entrepreneurial activity,” elevating the likelihood from 3.3 per cent to 6.9 per cent.
The news is a compliment to Gordon Brown, who has pledged that every school in Britain should be twinned by a business champion and offer enterprise classes to its pupils.
But since the Chancellor’s pledge to foster a more entrepreneurial society, the fear of failure holding back start-ups has increased, GEM reported.
In 2004, one third of the population cited fear as a deterrent to going it alone, though in 2005, 35 per cent of respondents said the prospect of failure prevents them from start-up.
Although only a marginal increase, those admitting the lowest level of fear tended to be over 55, prompting GEM to suggest the government still faces a “challenge” in encouraging youngsters to start-up.
More positively, individuals aged between 18 and 34 years-old have the second lowest fear of failure about starting up, and similarly, this group holds entrepreneurs in the highest regard.
Men have however slipped in the proportion of Britons currently setting up a company or having run a start-up for less than 42 months, while the number of women running early-stage firms has remained consistent.
Surprisingly in areas of affluence, GEM reported early-stage companies remain scarce, especially when compared to deprived areas where they are found in abundance.
Internationally, Britain’s entrepreneurial activity (6.2 per cent) continues to rank third in the G7, behind Canada (9.3 per cent) and the US (12.4 per cent).
The gap is increasing, GEM warned, but said significant gains for Britain since 2002 seem to have been diluted by massive progress in the US over the last 12 months in hiking start-up rates.
Rebecca Harding, its global chief executive, said a cultural change is evident in the UK’s attitude towards entrepreneurship, but said the government should do more.
“Since 2002, there does appear to be a step change in attitudes towards entrepreneurship especially among the young,” she said.
“Fear of failure, however, remains a challenge since, over the period as a whole, there has been little change in this attitudinal indicator.
“If the government is to close the gap between the UK and the USA in entrepreneurial activity, then this is a key feature which should be addressed with some urgency.”
GEM added that in Britain, BME (black and minority ethnic) individuals continue to trump their white counterparts in terms of entrepreneurial activity.
In particular, Indian and Pakistani people are twice as likely to be entrepreneurs as British whites, while this number increases to ‘more than three times as likely’ among North Africans.
Feb 23, 2006
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