Writes Sue Grice, Head of Careers
Dragons and Angels are not words often heard in the same sentence in the Great Hall at Taylors’. However, with a hall full of entrepreneurs, pupils and parents at our first Entrepreneurship Convention last Tuesday evening (17th March), these topics were definitely on the agenda!
There is a growing interest in entrepreneurship at Taylors’, which became evident during careers conversations with our pupils. This dynamic and exciting field drives economic growth, fosters innovation, and empowers individuals to transform their ideas into successful businesses, and the rapidly changing landscape among traditional careers makes it especially timely that we broaden the conversation around this as a career option.
Around 300 pupils and parents people were joined for the event in the Great Hall by fourteen entrepreneurs with a range of business experiences as varied as baby food, a modelling agency, an array of digital, fintech and AI based services across many sectors, wealth management services, a private GP and medical screening clinic, and an influencer marketing agency. With several of our speakers also being engaged in supporting, mentoring and investing in others’ startups, there was a wealth of expertise and advice in the hall for the pupils to learn from.
Four of our speakers formed a panel discussion hosted by Paddy Willis, founder of several businesses and a member of the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs, one of the newest Livery Companies in the City of London. This was followed by an informal ‘marketplace’ which is now a mainstay of our careers events where parents and pupils met with our guest entrepreneurs and chatted all things entrepreneurial! There were great conversations where our guests generously shared their experiences and offered encouragement. On reflection, one pupil said, “they were very inspiring and made everything feel within reach.”
This event intentionally had no specific subject or sector focus. In fact, there is a school of thought that in a rapidly changing AI-driven workplace, human entrepreneurial skills and qualities will be essential for all future job roles, whether as a fully-fledged business founder in the traditional sense, or to support a side hustle or for those intrapreneurs who drive change within an organisation.
Entrepreneurship can sound like a venture for people who like to work alone, but in fact the speakers emphasised that investors rarely invest in individuals, instead looking for strong, well balanced teams. One founder explained that knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is vital saying “if I’d tried to do this on my own, I would have fallen apart”, highlighting the value of surrounding yourself with people who complement your skills.
The panel discussed the importance of spotting real-world problems and believing they can be solved. Many ideas change significantly in the first stages, and the speakers encouraged pupils not to be discouraged if early ideas don’t work out. Flexibility and adaptability, they said, are a key part of entrepreneurship and with resilience, teamwork, a willingness to learn, plus passion and the right support, entrepreneurship is a journey full of opportunity.
Alongside the convention was an opportunity to engage with our School teams taking part in student enterprise competitions run by Young Enterprise and the Peter Jones Foundation Tycoon scheme. Their stalls, displaying funky socks, hydroponic plant growing systems and shoe cleaning kits, showcased the enterprising nature of our pupils. In a world where the future of the world of work is anything but predictable, we encourage our pupils to recognise that entrepreneurship is about more than launching start-ups or chasing billion-dollar deals. As a mindset, it’s a way of approaching challenges with creativity, self-reliance and the confidence to embrace uncertainty, turning ideas into impact, whether that be solving a local problem or innovating on a global scale. It offers empowerment to take control of their future rather than waiting for opportunities to appear and of course these skills are highly valued in many other career fields.
If you feel that you would like to be part of our careers education programme, either by sharing your own experiences with pupils, or mentoring teams of pupils in enterprise competitions, please complete our no-obligation contact form – we would love to hear from you below.
