Mentoring and Link Teacher Roles within Young Enterprise

Since its’ establishment in 1963, the Young Enterprise Company Programme has generated a large amount of interest and currently operates each academic year in the majority of secondary schools and colleges within the United Kingdom. It has often been incorporated as a core part of the curriculum, especially within GNVQ and the new AVCE courses. The programmes provided have expanded to include international operations, Team Enterprise plus Project Business UK. The main aim of Young Enterprise are to encourage young people to establish and run a small business, together with allowing them to develop a range of business and entrepreneurial skills. The Young Enterprise programme may provide an ability for participating schools to complete parts of the AVCE curriculum, but how far does it go to developing the next generation of entrepreneurs within the United Kingdom, one of this government’s aims (Nicholson, 1998). A core component of the programme is the availability of mentors and advisors (BIC, 1988; Curtis, 1999b), without whom the programme would not exist and their involvement is greatly encouraged (DTI, 1988; BIC, 1988; Garavan & O’Cinneide, 1994; Curtis, 1999b). This research is examining a range of aspects including the reasons behind link teacher and Young Enterprise Business Adviser participation. This phase of the research occurred in early 2003, and evaluated reasons for involvement and participation together with background and previous experience of Young Enterprise. Link Teachers facilitate the Company Programme within schools and colleges and were identified as a lynchpin of the Company Programme. However, many do not have formal business experience, particularly in a small business setting. Business Advisers were found to come from a range of backgrounds. As such these possessed a range of skills and experience, although experience in a small business setting was found to be lacking. In addition, reasons for participation varied from wanting to assist the creation of entrepreneurs to employers sending the Business Adviser, even if they did not want to participate.Recommendations from this research centre around greater training for Business Advisors and Link Teachers in entrepreneurial development and core business skills. In addition, further recommendations are made regarding the recruitment and motivation of Business Advisors, who hold a key role within the Young Enterprise Company Programme.