Press Release
For Immediate Release
19 June 2006
LEADING BUSINESS EDUCATION CHARITIES JOIN FORCES
Two of the UK’s leading business and enterprise education charities, businessdynamics and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), have today announced that they have merged.
It has never been more important to encourage young people to have an entrepreneurial approach to life and creating a more enterprising culture in schools is high on the government’s agenda. This merger will enable the combined organisation to engage with even greater numbers of pupils and schools, helping to create more understanding of business and enterprise across the UK.
businessdynamics has been delivering programmes across the UK for over 25 years. Over 2,000 companies provide their managers to go into schools and colleges to act as role models and to bring business to life for students. In the last four years it has more than tripled the number of young people it reaches, to over 86,000 in the last academic year.
NFTE provides teachers with a curriculum, training and support to enable them to guide students through setting up and running their own real business within the school or local community. It is BTEC accredited and proven to engage with disaffected and under achieving students.
Schools are being given £180million* to fund the five days of enterprise education, introduced in September 2005 for key stage 4 students. However market research, carried out by the independent researchers GfK-NOP on behalf of businessdynamics, found that many teachers feel ill-equipped to teach enterprise and welcome expert quality assistance from business.
The merger will enable both organisations to grow even more rapidly. By sharing their expertise and resources, they will be able to engage with increasing numbers of employers and schools, with a wider range of products and services, helping to create more entrepreneurial and business savvy young people across the UK.
What people say
Sir Paul Judge, Chairman of businessdynamics, said, “80% of pupils will leave school and eventually work for private companies. businessdynamics tells students about the challenges and opportunities of business and has tripled the number of students it reaches in the last five years.”
Steve Mariotti, New York-based CEO and founder of NFTE USA said, ”It was agreed that both organisations would benefit from the sharing of expertise and resources, enabling businessdynamics and NFTE to grow together and create a more entrepreneurial attitude in young people in the UK.”
Sir Michael Tomlinson, Trustee, said, “Schools recognise that Enterprise Education cannot be taught through one specific initiative. It will be the combination of a range of activities through which young people will develop these crucial entrepreneurial skills. By sharing their expertise and resources, businessdynamics and NFTE will offer teachers a wide range of exciting products to meet all their enterprise education and business teaching needs.”
Elizabeth Reid, Chief Executive, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and Trustee, said, "The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust supports the merger of businessdynamics and NFTE. This is an exciting development in enterprise education. We hope it will enable them to bring their programmes into many more schools across the UK and to help teachers to deliver on this new agenda."
David Millar, CEO, businessdynamics said, “Charities in education need scale and this merger will give the combined organisation even more support and resources to increase young people’s understanding of business and the possibility of each of them starting their own company.”
For further information please contact
Catherine Swift
Tel: 0208 333 5870
Mob: 07801 817 451
Email: info@cswiftpr.co.uk
David Millar, CEO, businessdynamics
Tel: 0207 261 4503
Email: dmillar@businessdynamics.org.uk
Notes to Editors
* £60million a year.
businessdynamics’ aim is to bring business to life for young people and for over 25 years it has been delivering interactive programmes, now taught by volunteers from 2,000 businesses, in schools and colleges across the UK. Last year over 86,000 young people aged 14-19 participated in their Key Skills and Business Awareness programmes and the Blue Skies Entrepreneurial Roadshow.
NFTE UK was established in 2000 and introduces students to the principles of entrepreneurship by teaching them how to develop and operate their own small business through the specialised NFTE curriculum. Its unique feature is a researched and internationally validated entrepreneurship curriculum together with the training of teachers to deliver the programme. The NFTE curriculum is accredited through BTEC ‘Preparing for Enterprise’ (NQF Level 2) and is accompanied by a substantial library of NFTE resources for teachers and students.
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