Enterprising Mindsets: A breakfast conversation with Gordon Brown

A BREAKFAST CONVERSATION WITH GORDON BROWN

EXPLORING WHAT IT TAKES #LetsTalkMindset

Mindset is a powerful thing. It can turn challenges to your advantage and give you the drive you need to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

The challenges faced by young people at the moment are great.

But so too is their initiative and creativity to overcome them.

We call this an enterprising mindset.

So, that’s why we wanted to begin a conversation. Bringing educators, employers, charities, entrepreneurs and future leaders together in a bid to understand what this mindset looks like, how we can work together to nurture it and support young people to build their futures in this current and future environment.

This report is an illustration of that conversation – bringing together the ideas, inspiring stories and recommendations we heard – so that we can act now to give young people the skills and the mindset they need to succeed.

“That’s why we wanted to bring educators, employers, charities, entrepreneurs and future leaders together to begin that conversation.”

Click here to watch Sharon Davies, CEO - Young Enterprise, start the discussion.

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Full video of the discussion available on page 13

YOUNG ENTERPRISE This has been a difficult year for everybody, especially young people. We know that the Covid-19 crisis has had a negative impact on mental health, access to education and jobs.

Youth unemployment is on course to triple to its highest level since the 1980s and could hit 17% by the end of the year. There is much to be concerned about. And this is certainly reflected in the news and prevailing narrative about a “lost generation.”

But there is another side to the story. One that is getting little exploration and yet could have an even greater impact on the prospects of the next generation.

We are learning powerful lessons from young people every single day during this crisis. Throughout the first lockdown we saw young people showing resourcefulness (often with limited resources), adaptability and creativity – Tayla Evans, who you’ll read about in this report was one such example, pivoting her festival business idea in the light of the pandemic.

For me, that’s an enterprising mindset in action. It is a mindset that our communities will benefit from and that employers will value. Perhaps most importantly of all, this mindset actively chooses hope in the face of uncertainty.

I believe there is a national imperative that falls on all of our shoulders as entrepreneurs, employers, teachers and parents; to support and champion that mindset and to encourage young people to explore and create new opportunities and show them that even in the face of adversity, hard work does pay off.

If all you are surrounded by is negativity, there is no incentive to try.

While the threat of spiralling youth unemployment and the reversal of social mobility must be tackled head-on, we must also be careful that we do not project our own fears onto the next generation and ensure our language does not lead young people to focus purely on what they cannot do or to lose hope. So we need a new narrative. And to encourage as many people as possible to join the conversation.

If we are truly serious about investing in the kind of future that the Class of 2020 and those that follow them deserve, then we need to engage young people directly in discovering new ways of working.

So let’s listen to young people about how they are already shaping their futures, let’s talk about the role of enterprise education in nurturing ambition, let’s hear from employers directly who stand to benefit from this enterprising mindset and let’s help to build on this enterprising mindset with the skills young people need.

Sharon Davies CEO, Young Enterprise

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GORDON Enterprising Mindsets began with an inspiring fireside chat with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who reflected on the power of enterprise education to bring much-needed skills and opportunities to the next generation.

“Everybody has a talent, everybody has potential, everybody is unique, and everybody’s got something special to offer - it’s our job to help people bridge the gap between what they are and what they have in themselves to become. And that’s why Young Enterprise is so successful.

Because Young Enterprise doesn’t just talk about academics or just about vocational skills, it talks about skills and a whole range of areas including being self employed or in business and an enterprising mindset.”

“We’ve got to promise work experience, we’ve got to promise proper training, we’ve got to promise help with job searches - and we’ve got to give employers an incentive to take people on. If people are showing entrepreneurial skills then we’ve got to give people a chance to develop this.”

“People’s mindsets have got to be that something can change, something can be better, we can actually make things improve. Instead of being desolate, and instead of losing hope, that you have the hope that something will change. It’s not optimism, which is that something might change, and it’s not wishful thinking, that something could change, it’s hope that something will change because we’re determining changes.”

“Everybody has a talent, everybody has potential, everybody is unique, and everybody’s got something special to offer - it’s our job to help people bridge the gap between what they are and what they have in themselves to become.”

Click here to watch Gordon Brown: “Hoping for change.”

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Click here to watch Gordon Brown: “The key to success.”

“Think of this as ‘opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.’ How can we extend the range of opportunities, even in a time when businesses are not taking on people?”

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Join the Conversation #LetsTalkMindset 6

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PANELLIST After the discussion we caught up with 4 of the event panelists to discuss what they thought and why Enterprising Mindsets are so important in today’s young people.

Mouhssin Ismail Principal, Newham Collegiate Sixth Form.

Moushssin Ismail was working as a solicitor in the City when he decided to give it all up and go into teaching – he was determined to give children from disadvantaged backgrounds a more inspiring start to life.

“I was sick and tired of seeing talented people underachieve because of poverty,” he explains. “Just because your parents haven’t got money or you don’t live in the right community that’s no reason why you don’t go on to some of the best universities or go into the best jobs.”

As principal of Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, Moushssin is determined to nurture aspiration among his students but also wants them to understand how the world works.

“I’ve spoken to Year 11 students and said ‘there’s no reason why you can’t be the prime minister, there’s no reason why you can’t go to Oxbridge or go to Ivy League universities, but it’s going to require you to have trust and faith in your teachers and also work incredibly hard, because it’s not a level playing field and you know that.’”

One of the first things Moushssin did as Principal was take students to Cambridge University and set up a US Ivy League prep programme. “People laughed and said there’s no way these students can go to Harvard or MIT – now we’ve had six students go on full scholarships and had eight offers – five this year alone.”

Moushssin’s mix of aspiration and ruthless honesty has carried on in the face of Covid-19. “Just because there is this virus, we can’t stand still,” he says. “No one knows when this will be over – but it will be over – and I ask students ‘what kind of person do you want to be at the end of it?’ I ask ‘are you using this as an opportunity to push yourself?. It’s all about mindset’.

“I was sick and tired of seeing talented people underachieve because of poverty,” he explains.

“Just because your parents haven’t got money or you don’t live in the right community that’s no reason why you don’t go on to some of the best universities or go into the best jobs.”

Mouhssin Ismail Principal, Newham Collegiate Sixth Form.

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Sam White CEO & Founder of Freedom Services Group and Stella Insurance.

It was a series of unfortunate events that prompted Freedom Services Group founder Sam White to start her own business – her mother sadly passed away, she broke up with a boyfriend and broke her leg.

“I’ve had a few moments in my life when I’ve had to stop and take stock – that was one of them,” she recalls.

“I realised I didn’t want to do my job anymore, I wanted to do something for myself.”

And so, aged 24, sitting in her sister’s conservatory, she began selling products for people and winning contracts – services that would later become her first company, Action 365.

That moment to take stock and think about making a change is something Sam recognises now as she looks at young people facing a challenging start to their careers. She believes the challenges faced will inspire the kinds of entrepreneurship the world needs.

“The beauty is, young people clearly see the way things are now and the problems that previous generations have created,” she explains. “The energy and frustration towards big issues that need to be solved will power people to start their own things.”

Thinking about what makes an enterprising mindset, she believes resilience and a positive perspective are key.

“If you’re constantly telling yourself you’re a failure, that will drag you down. For entrepreneurs, and young people starting out on a different path, being able to be forgiving of themselves and sticking with something even if it doesn’t feel it’s going the right way, is important.”

Sam insists young people shouldn’t get too bogged down by the current narrative around opportunities and the economy. “In my experience, anything is possible if you set your mind to it, absolutely anything. You can genuinely create your own future for yourself. So find those things that you love, the things that you think need tackling, and just get stuck into it and ignore all the other noise.”

“The beauty is, young people clearly see the way things are now and the problems that previous generations have created.”

Sam White CEO & Founder of Freedom Services Group and Stella Insurance.

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“Lots of different things can come out of this, like resilience – a lot of young people will be more adaptable.”

Tayla Evans Young Enterprise Alumna.

Tayla Evans Young Enterprise Alumna.

When sixth form student Tayla Evans and her friends were thinking of ideas for their Young Enterprise business, they did what many entrepreneurs do, and they started with a big problem.

“We’re teenagers so a few of us have been to festivals and we couldn’t believe the amount of tents left behind – so we tried to think of something we could do to solve the issue.”

Their solution was to develop a showerproof cardboard tent, EnviroTent, designed to last the duration of a festival and replacing their plastic alternatives. “We thought, hang on a minute, we could actually do this and change the way people behave,” says Tayla.

As the Covid-19 crisis continues to dominate our lives, Tayla believes she would be more nervous if she hadn’t taken part in the programme. “Doing Young Enterprise has made me a lot more optimistic,” she says. “I’ve been really fortunate to build up new skills, the kind that employers will look for.”

Agility is certainly one such skill – when Tayla and her teammates saw that festivals were cancelled this summer, they pivoted their marketing message to encourage people to use EnviroTent to enjoy festivals in their homes – camping in gardens and decorating their cardboard shelters.

“Lots of different things can come out of this, like resilience – a lot of young people will be more adaptable,” she says. “The pandemic has offered a break – a moment for us to stand back from life and realise what we really want. We can be a bit different and change what is expected from us.”

Where does she expect to be in five years? Tayla’s ambitions have not been dampened. “I’d like to see myself running my own business, that I’ve built from the ground up. I’ll have created jobs and hopefully had a positive impact on the environment – perhaps with less plastic waste from festivals.”

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Oli Barrett, Event Moderator, Co-founder of Startup Britain, Tenner and Children’s Literacy Campaign TOTS. 10

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PANEL What can we do to nurture the enterprising mindset that already exists in many young people? This is the question Oli Barrett put to our panel of entrepreneurs, educators, charities, business leaders, employers and future leaders, as we explored an alternative narrative for a generation, all too often referred to as “lost.”

One answer that immediately united everybody was to tackle the fear of failure. “We should encourage young people to focus on doing their best, not on the outcome,” said Sam White, founder of Freedom Group.

“We should create an environment where they won’t get sunk by the inevitable failures that happen along the way.”

Understanding limitations but learning how to work as part of a team is an important part of this, agreed Stephen Welton, founder and Executive Chairman of investment fund, BGF. “You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, you just need to be in the room and engaging – success ultimately comes from teams and these are made up of different kinds of people.”

In his work as principal of Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, Mouhssin Ismail, championed a shift in attitude from teachers, parents and communities too. “An enterprising mindset has to be rooted in adults having high expectations and putting young people in situations where it’s okay to fail.”

If young people can develop the right kind of mindset, this is more valuable than an exact skillset argues James Milligan, Global Head of Technology, Hays. “Organisations are not hiring for a fixed set of skills when they come to us, rather someone who can evolve and solve the problems of the future that don’t exist yet.”

The speakers were also in agreement that if the right mindset is to be created, there needs to be collaboration across the whole spectrum – starting with companies, schools and employers.

“We’ve got to persuade the education authorities to take this more seriously,” former Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the audience before the panel. “Undoubtedly, teachers are under real pressure. But I think we should bring the business leaders into the school, get them talking to the kids, and at the same time, give school children a chance to go into a company and see how a company works.”

Enterprise education should be embedded in the curriculum, argued Ndidi Okezie, CEO, UK Youth and serial entrepreneur. “The best teachers can integrate enterprise in thinking, problem-solving and creativity in each subject”.

Ndidi also made the point that we need to look outside of the school environment to bring young people along. “Learning doesn’t stop at the end of the school day,” she said.

“There are youth organisations, community programmes and local faith groups doing amazing things with young people. We need joined-up thinking across youth provision because there are young people that show up very differently in out of school settings than they do in school. So, what is going on outside of school that allows them to be more themselves be more enterprising and vice versa?”

Regardless of how to approach this, we must make sure young people understand what their options are, according to A-level student and Young Enterprise winner Tayla Evans. “We’ve got to expose young people to opportunities. They may have the enterprising mindset but they don’t know it yet because they haven’t had the chance to discover it. Young Enterprise completely changed my future.”

Stephen Welton’s advice to the next generation was to acquire as many skills as possible and keep learning. “We should be learning all of our lives, this enterprising mindset starts as a child but continues as an adult.”

There were many suggestions of how to encourage young people, but ultimately the goal is united – we must work together to make the most of the adaptability and resourcefulness that exists and not let the current negative narrative prevail.“I encourage us all to watch our words and start injecting a bit more hope into the conversations we have,” stressed Ndidi.

“Because young people are listening.”

“People’s mindsets have got to be that something can change, something can be better, we can actually make things improve. Instead of being desolate, and instead of losing hope, that you have the hope that something will change. It’s not optimism, which is that something might change, and it’s not wishful thinking, that something could change, it’s hope that something will change because we’re determining changes.”

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the audience before the panel .

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

10 Things We Learned • Hope, in the face of uncertainty, is inextricably linked to mindset.

• We need to increase collaboration across all education provision - from schools, and youth organisations to businesses and beyond.

• We need stronger connections between business and education to create the right skills and help.

• Increase young people’s access to information about available opportunities to develop and transfer their skills.

• Enterprise education has an important role in giving young people confidence about their futures - let’s explore how to embed it into the curriculum.

• Encouraging life long learning is critical to ensure our current workforce benefit from an enterprising mindset as much as our future workforce. Online resources offer a world of skills without having to physically travel across the country.

• Our words and actions really count right now. Our responsibility lies as a society to build a new language and narrative that acknowledges the challenge but builds hope for the future.

• Let’s engage young people in developing that new narrative.

• Let’s do more to normalise and integrate learning from failure and mistakes as part of everyday learning, focusing more on the process of recovery and reflection on how we do something different next time.

• Adults need to be role models demonstrating these qualities in action, in our communities and in the workplace. Young people need to see this in action.

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“We have got to persuade people that even in the most difficult and desolate of times, when people feel that they’ve lost out, there is still hope. And we can make what seems impossible at the moment possible, by working together to achieve it.”

Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister.

Conclusion Enterprising Mindsets has provided a powerful start to the conversation. With our brilliant speakers and some 350 virtual attendees, it generated ideas, inspiration and motivation for the future of young people.

And the conversation doesn’t stop there - it’s one that we will continue to have with as many people as possible to make sure we work together to help the next generation to reach their potential.

To continue this conversation, we’d like to leave you with 3 questions. Please respond with #LetsTalkMindset 1) What does an enterprising mindset mean to you?

2) As a school or youth educator, how are you encouraging an enterprising mindset?

3) As an employer, how are you incorporating enterprising mindsets into leadership and development plans - and how do you seek out enterprising mindsets in your employees and future workforce?

“Perhaps, most importantly in these times, this mindset actively chooses HOPE in the face of uncertainty. Something we could all do with right now.”

– Sharon Davies, Chief Executive, Young Enterprise

Click here to watch an abridged video of the full Enterprising Mindsets disussion.

To hear first-hand from leading voices from the world of education, charity, business and future leaders on their pers pective of an enterprising mindset – tune in to our Enterprising Mindsets Podcast Series at:

Podbean: https://enterprisingmindsets.p

odbean.com

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SOCIAL MEDIA We loved engaging with our community of young people, educators, volunteers and supporters online during and after the event. Here is a snapshot of the social media activity! #LetsTalkMindset

The conversation continues on social media – join in now and let’s show the power of enterprising mindsets.

Join the Conversation #LetsTalkMindset 14

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Join the Conversation #LetsTalkMindset

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