Serial entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den panellist Peter Jones is planning to launch a national academy for aspiring young entrepreneurs.
The Phones International Group founder is hoping the academy will create more start-ups in the UK by presenting entrepreneurship as a viable career path for young people.
Full details of the new academy are expected to be announced by prime minister Gordon Brown next Tuesday, as the government unveils its enterprise strategy to accompany chancellor Alistair Darling’s first Budget.
However, Growing Business can reveal that the academy will cater for entrepreneurially minded 16-19 year olds, who will learn how to turn their business ideas into money-making reality firsthand from entrepreneurs themselves.
“This is going to be one of Britain’s first, what I would call, real enterprise academies,” Peter Jones told Growing Business.
He added: “I’ve always said that we should take the boardroom back to the classroom, and we should start young. 16-19 year olds will get the chance to be taught by entrepreneurs, not just teachers.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2008
