Press Release: Linking Teachers with Entrepreneurs to Inspire Students
Linking Teachers with Entrepreneurs to Inspire Students
“IF more Students choose careers as entrepreneurs, this will have a significant positive long-term impact on the UK economy.”
- Sherry Coutu, CBE , Founder, Founders4Schools
London, UK: For release June 21st, 2013: Helping teachers inspire more students to become entrepreneurs is the focus of Founders4Schools, a new programme being previewed today at the Festival of Education, Wellington College. See video launched at the Festival here.
The Founders4Schools website (www.founders4schools.org.uk) enables teachers to quickly and easily arrange for company founders to visit their classrooms to talk about why they chose entrepreneurship as their career path and what it takes to be successful. This innovative and high-scale platform is being officially launched today, in partnership with LinkedIn, Facebook, Duedil and Department of Business Innovation and Skills, to teachers, parents and governors at the Festival of Education.
Stemming from a series of innovative pilots to encourage school-aged children to consider entrepreneurship as a high-impact career choice. An extraordinary 96% of the 2500 students who participated in these pilots said “they were inspired by the programme” and 87% said “they wished to get involved in an entrepreneurial project or business.” The initial programme also resulted in 54% of students interested in choosing STEM subjects.
Quotes from students who participated in the pilots are a testament to the impact entrepreneurs can make on their lives.
“Very useful... it gave me an idea of what to study at university if I want to be a successful entrepreneur. It also gave me an idea about what I want to do in the future. It gave me a taste of what it might be like to be an entrepreneur......I loved it because it was from people who have experienced what we were going through now. They did not know what they wanted to do but they worked hard and got there.”
“Their (the speakers') backgrounds at our age were typical and so normal that we easily related to them...this showed us that hard work and motivation can help you get the career you want.”
Founders4Schools provides an easy-to-use website for teachers where, in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, they can schedule a free event at their school. Every event is evaluated to ensure the quality of the speakers invited is maintained. By speaking in schools about their career paths, founders can help inspire young people to ‘think big’ and to consider founding or joining a startup as their top career choice. They can help build UK companies that scale into a global company. This is not just important for students, but also for the UK economy. Increasing the number of startups that scale is critical for job and wealth creation. In the last 6 years the top 6% of high-growth firms generated over half of the new jobs in the UK, demonstrating the huge impact scaled businesses have on the economy.
In the next 18 months Founders4Schools aims to inspire children in the UK and worldwide to consider the career of an entrepreneur alongside their other choices.
“LinkedIn is committed to connecting talent with opportunity, which is why we were happy to partner with Founders4Schools. LinkedIn and F4S are working together to invite successful founders of companies via LinkedIn who can share their expertise to inspire UK schoolchildren to study STEM and aspire to launch their own companies,” said Ariel Eckstein, Managing Director, LinkedIn Europe.
"Duedil is delighted to be an important part of the Founders4Schools service. We are thrilled with this innovative use of our API that allows teachers to more easily see how the companies founded by these entrepreneurs are doing. We wholeheartedly support this initiative and encourage Founders from private companies and public companies across the UK to volunteer an hour of their time to inspire school children in the communities where they live, work or come from." Damian Kimmelman, Founder and CEO, Duedil
Teachers should register on www.founders4schools.org.uk and book an event for their students now!
Mobile: +44 (0) 796 131 1080
Janet Coyle: Managing Director of SVC2UK and Founders4Schools, [email protected] Mobile: +44 (0)793 208 2238
Founders4Schools has been created to assist teachers, governors and parents in inspiring students to become entrepreneurs and help fuel the growth of the economy.
At events organised by teachers at schools, entrepreneurs speak about what they studied in school, what motivated them to set up their businesses and why they recommend entrepreneurship as a leading career choice for any person keen to have a positive impact on the world. Students will also hear about the importance of STEM subjects and how these areas directly relate to growing successful businesses and social enterprises.
http://www.founders4schools.org.uk/
About Silicon Valley Comes to the UK
SVC2UK is focused on supporting the growth of the next multi-billion pound companies in Europe by helping create the mindset and conditions required for businesses to grow into global winners.
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