Global Entrepreneurship Week in the UK is a wrap, with the five day campaign officially ending on Friday the 22nd of November. Preliminary results from campaign host Youth Business International indicates that GEW UK has grown again, after huge increase in size in 2012. Two simultaneous launch events, in London and Glasgow, were followed by over 3,000 events organised by over 600 partners, and were attended by in excess of 300,000 people; the online campaign also reached new heights, with nearly 8,000 mentions of the#GEWfwd hashtag during the week itself. In addition the campaign was ‘trending in the UK on Monday morning, meaning Global Entrepreneurship Week was one of the most talked about topics in the world of Twitter.
The theme of GEW 2013 in the UK was ‘take a step forward’, and the week focussed around asking business owners and budding entrepreneurs to commit to a positive step they would take as a result of the week. Up and down the country GEW participants posed with the#GEWfwd boards to share their pledges with the public and build up a national map of GEW activity in the UK. Even Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable got in on the act at the GEW launch, pledging alongside students from Southfields Academy and promising to work to make the UK one of the best places in the world to start a business.
During the week YBI launched a piece of research, in partnership with Shell, comparing entrepreneurial attitudes, ambitions and activity of young people in the UK against counterparts in other leading enterprise nations, based on latest data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).
The study, Unlocking Ambitions, Creating Growth, found that nearly one in five (18%) 18-34 year olds in the UK believe they have the entrepreneurial skills to start a business and perceive a potential business opportunity. Yet less than 4% go on to create a company that pays a wage and makes a profit.
The report also revealed that entrepreneurship is perceived as a “poor career choice” by young people in the UK, which is a major reason why so many fail to act on their business ambitions. Just half of young people (56%) consider starting a company to be a good career option, significantly lower than in many other countries, including Brazil (88%), Netherlands (82%), China (75%), and France (70%).
Andrew Devenport, Chief Executive Officer, Youth Business International, added: “It is clear from this report – launched during Global Entrepreneurship Week – that we need to do more to help young people take the leap from just thinking about entrepreneurship, to actually doing it.
“If we want to continue to be global leaders in entrepreneurship, then it is imperative to look at and learn from what’s happening in the rest of the world. From embedding entrepreneurship into our education system, through to helping young entrepreneurs break through a growth glass ceiling, we can learn much from countries such as Singapore, China and the Netherlands.”
This timely research made clear the importance of events like GEW with celebrate the success stories and rock stars of entrepreneurship, and give people working hard on their business idea, often in lonely and isoloated circumstances, the chance to get together and share ideas, inspiration, experiences and challenges.
In terms of inspiration, there was no shortage at GEW UK 2013. From the Premier League to the British Library, a huge number of well-known UK institutions threw their support behind the campaign. From the Enterprise Academy Challenge at Stamford Bridge to The Nottingham High Growth Summit there were too many standout events to mention. From radio marathons and Google Campus events to world record breaking speed networking, GEW had something for everyone.
If you did miss some of the activity, luckily YBI put together a Storify page to help hosts and participants stay ahead of the campaign and get the recognition their events deserved. Looking back it seems incredible that so much activity could take place in one jam packed week.
If you were an event host or participant, please share your memories with the hashtag#GEWfwd and take a few moments to fill in our survey and help us further improve GEWand make it even better in 2014.