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Business and Entrepreneurship Programme
from Impact Report 2022
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In the last few years we have seen a marked increase in an entrepreneurial spirit within the Old Radleian network; from Radleians starting their own businesses at university through to serial entrepreneurs who have founded several businesses, not always succeeding, but learning important lessons along the way. We see this as an exciting opportunity for us to look at how we can support Radley entrepreneurs at school and beyond, and more broadly, build a greater understanding of the world of work in all students, imbuing them with an enterprise mindset before they leave Radley.
The Radleian Society has recently focussed much of the business networking programme in support of young ORs who were impacted by lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. The result has been fascinating, and in some ways not surprising: many have been resourceful, resilient, and enterprising – either starting their own business or, as can frequently happen, joining a friend’s start-up business. The more we explored this area of work, the more we were delighted to find out how many successful OR entrepreneurs were willing to share their story, and were already mentoring other ORs with their start-ups.
More broadly we have heard that the challenges when entering the world of work today are greater than ever, not just because of the pandemic, but also because of the way the workplace has transformed – greater competition for places, hybrid working, multiple job or career changes, and no more jobs for life. Individuals need to be resilient and flexible, willing to continuously take on new skills in order to grasp opportunities, and Radley students need to be equipped to walk into this world with their eyes wide open.
We are now developing a Business and Entrepreneurship programme that will seek to continuously bring external business viewpoints and experiences into Radley – providing a dynamic ‘real-time’ view of the world of work - and give the boys the relevant hands-on business skills they need. There is much that the boys already do to foster these skills through our Futures Programme, but this new initiative will support and give practical advice to those aged between 13 and 25 years old.
We are genuinely excited by the potential of this new programme with our long-term aim being to make Radley a champion school for entrepreneurs and to help students to better understand the world of work in order to shape their career journeys. It is also our hope to be able to extend this programme to other schools to help equip their students for their future careers.
The Foundation has received two donations to fully fund this programme for the next three years, and the interest and support already from both ORs and parents, has been phenomenal.
Aim: To establish Radley College as a Business and Entrepreneurship Centre, focused on developing an enterprise mindset in pupils to enable them to thrive in established businesses and start-ups.
Young Enterprise, March 2022
