Give four-year-olds an education in business urges TV Dragon

multimillionaire businessman Peter Jones opened Yorkshire’s first National Enterprise Academy yesterday and called for business education to be extended to children in primary school.

The Dragons’ Den star said entrepreneurs are “made not born” as he launched the third of his pioneering academies, at Sheffield’s new 60m City College.

The NEA is targeted at 16- to 18-year-olds and offers a one-year BTEC-accredited diploma in enterprise and entrepreneurship. It promises students the skills to set up their own businesses or to help them shine in an existing one.

Business Secretary Vince Cable attended the launch and praised the NEA programme as “a great initiative by the private sector”. He said the Government would play its part by creating a favourable environment for economic growth.

Mr Jones said he has spent “millions” so far on the scheme and co-wrote the curriculum, which has an strong emphasis on “learning by doing” such as developing business plans and launching and running micro-businesses with regular oversight from business mentors.

He wants to see the curriculum taught in primary schools so “our four-year-olds can learn what it’s like to buy a piece of clothing from Philip Green at Top Shop”.

Mr Jones launched the NEA pilot programme in 2009 and has established two centres – in Buckinghamshire and Manchester.

Nearly two thirds – 65 per cent – of students from the first courses have gone on to set up their own businesses or find full-time employment, while 34 per cent have entered further education. A quarter of the students were so-called Neets – not in education, employment or training – said Mr Jones.

He chose Sheffield because of the “passion, determination and commitment” of college staff, led by principal Julie Byrne, and he hopes to license the curriculum across the UK.

“I have spoken to headmasters and headmistresses and they are desperate for this,” he said.

Mr Jones added: “Put simply, in the UK we need entrepreneurs to stimulate recovery and businesses need inspired employees to help drive growth.

“Together I firmly believe the NEA and Sheffield City College can play a key role in helping to make Yorkshire and Humberside a leader in enterprise education and in doing so strengthen the regional and national economy.”

In his speech to college staff and business and civic leaders of Sheffield, Mr Cable recalled a visit to Hillsborough as a child in the 1950s and compared the “flashes and flames” of the industrial city to a scene from Dante’s Inferno.

He said the city had successfully transformed itself but must do so again as Britain rebalanced its economy away from the financial services industry.

The Business Secretary said the emphasis would shift towards high-value manufacturing and growth in the regions.

This change would be driven primarily by the private sector, although the Government would play a role in reducing red tape, making it easier to start up new companies, improving the tax environment for business and increasing bank lending.

The opening of the NEA in Sheffield took place as part of the first Made: The Entrepreneur Festival, organised by Creative Sheffield, the publicly-funded development company.

Other events included a business leader forum hosted by law firm DLA Piper, with a panel made up of Doug Richard, the UK-based Californian entrepreneur, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, the businessman behind the Black Farmer sausage brand, and Lara Morgan, the CEO and founder of toiletries firm Pacific Direct, and a dinner for 50 leading entrepreneurs last night with Business Minister Mark Prisk.

Paul Firth, the chief executive of Creative Sheffield, said the festival was “a land grab by Sheffield for the crown of entrepreneurial capital of the UK”.

Paul Scriven, leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “We want to become the most business-friendly city in the country.”