In the white paper the government focuses on five 'enablers of enterprise' and in this post I'll summarise and analyse the section of the report on one of these: Knowledge and Skills.

In the first part of this section the emphasis is, as with wider existing policy, on enterprise education in schools - including the new National Enterprise Academy. I won't write in detail about this, but want to make two points about it:

  1. Enterprise Insight and other government programmes seem to keep duplicating work that is already brilliantly done by Young Enterprise. Why? Why not just give better funding and support to YE? I and many other entrepreneurs got our first taste of entrepreneurship on Young Enterprise programmes, and I'm a great fan. Government schools enterprise programmes should work with YE, not seek to replace it.
  2. A lot of what is touted as 'enterprise' education is actually just designed to make kids good future employees - and therefore doesn't really come under my remit of focusing on entrepreneurship. It's much like TV's 'The Apprentice' claims to be about entrepreneurship - when they are actually competing for a salaried job. So 'ready for work' education shouldn't be confused with 'enterprise' education.
  3. I don't believe that encouraging people to go straight into entrepreneurship from education is a great idea. It really helps to have a bit of real-world understanding, knowledge of how business works and a few contacts etc before you take the leap. But the government and its agencies seem determined to focus on getting people straight out of education (and often those who would have difficulty finding employment), rather than encouraging young people a few years into working life to take the leap. Could this be because the agency delivering the programmes (Enterprise Insight) is run by the CBI and the IOD - organisations that represent the employers of the young people I want to leave to become entrepreneurs??

So moving on in this section we come to 'Business Support Services' - and here the report is spot on:

  • Continuing to improve enterprise education in our schools and the higher and further education system will provide the platform for the future success of our businesses. But this needs to be complemented with measures targeted at businesses, a focus on mentoring and access to wider business support.
  • Entrepreneurs acknowledge that there are many ways in which to develop skills and knowledge within their businesses. When asked, most recently at a series of consultation events run by BERR in the run up to publication of this strategy, many businesses say that
    the advice they value most comes from people they feel have real experience which they are willing to share – mentors.
  • Business to business mentoring can promote skills development, capacity building and enhanced business performance, where it might not otherwise occur. The Government therefore is putting forward a number of proposals to both strengthen and build capacity for mentoring in the UK, including building on existing networks and to support corporate mentoring.

Mentoring is an ideal way to support and encourage entrepreneurs. They love to hear from someone else who has 'been there, done that' - and find it inspiring as well as informative. Being an entrepreneur can be very lonely at times, and a peer-group mentor can really help with that.

One note of caution rings in my head though - the white paper refers to corporate mentoring, with the example of A4E. I remain doubtful that middle-managers in general can provide the kind of mentoring required by entrepreneurs.

Also in this section, the simplification of Business Link into the primary access channel for small business services. This, I believe, has been an excellent idea. The Business Links are coming under the control of the Regional Development Agencies, but with some nationally co-ordinated services (such as their excellent website). Business Links will also be just an access point rather than seeking to be the advisers, mentors etc themselves.

Women in Enterprise is the next topic in this section, and here I strongly support the sentiment - but am not sure about the plans. I don't believe in setting up women-only programmes - just in making enterprise support and training more accessible and friendly to all.

I wrote my books specifically with women in their 20's and 30's in mind (if you read them with this in mind you may well spot quite a few things in there to highlight this) - but I didn't write them only for women. I've found many many men who also tell me how refreshingly different they find my books to be.

Because I'm a man I'm obviously not best qualified to pass judgement on what's the best way of supporting female entrepreneurship - so I've also talked to women entrepreneurs, and other women in business who could be a good target market for encouraging into enterprise - and they all said they find women-only networking clubs, support programmes and so on to be patronising and unnecessary.

But I think there are some specific issues that need to be addressed when it comes to women's enterprise to a greater extent than are necessary for men (but not for women exclusively) - and the key one of these is self-confidence. I believe this is the only major thing holding back the level of female entrepreneurship. I keep meeting women who have all the ideas, the skills and so on - who just lack the simple confidence that they can do it. But there are men who lack this confidence too, just a lower proportion, so it's not really been a necessary part of enterprise support before. But now, I believe, developing the confidence of potential entrepreneurs should be a key part of enterprise support.

This can be done by:
1. Allowing people the opportunity to 'dabble' in enterprise in their spare time before taking the full leap.
2. Creating a community of like-minded people who can encourage and support each other.
3. Providing great role models - real people rather than super-heroes.
4. Making enterprise a more social activity instead of the lone-ranger approach that is required now.
5. Providing support resources in friendly, plain English, and keeping things simple. Starting a business isn't rocket science (I did actually get a friend who is a rocket scientist to confirm this after I showed him my book Start Your Business Week by Week!), so it shouldn't be made to seem so flashy and complicated.

Knowledge and skills: key new policy proposals

So here are the new policy ideas, as set out in the white paper:

  • Government has committed a further £30m to extend enterprise education from secondary schools into primary and tertiary education;
  • entrepreneur Peter Jones is working with the Government to launch a National Enterprise Academy (NEA);
  • Government will work with the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to pilot Women’s Business Centres (WBC);
  • Government will provide enterprise support focused on women through RDAs and Business Link;
  • a national mentoring network for women in business will be coordinated to recognise and support the distinctive nature of women’s business start-up and growth;
  • Government will work through Children’s Centres to make enterprise support and advice more women-friendly and more readily available;
  • Government will extend and improve the Train to Gain programme;
  • Government will increase its investment in the Leadership and Management Programme for small business;
  • Government will work with the RDAs, and the leading private sector agencies, to establish better links between existing mentoring programmes and the business support network overall;
  • Government will work with A4e over the next four years to develop a full understanding of good practice in corporate mentoring; and
  • the Government has been working in partnership with the newly formed Institute of Business Consulting to create a new set of national standards for all organisations involved in the delivery of business support.