Yesterday we hosted our final Student Entrepreneurs Question Time with Santander. Students and young entrepreneurs headed to the Crowne Plaze in Glasgow - a stones throw from the Liberal Democrats Party Conference- to ask their questions directly to MP’s and enterprise experts.
The lively discussion focused on the skills needed to succeed as an entrepreneur, the role that education plays in entrepreneurship and what more banks, corporates and government can be doing to support young entrepreneurs.
Panellists from the world of business and politics told the audience of students that entrepreneurship should be promoted as a career path at schools. They explained that whilst tenacity, determination and bravery are needed to succeed in business, hard skills such as managing intellectual property, exporting, contracts and sourcing funding should be learnt at an early age.
But students at the SEQT event claimed they needed more practical support from the government and universities such as mentoring schemes. Other ideas discussed included teaching finance and contract law as part of the GCSE curriculum and introducing assessment of entrepreneurial work undertaken during university degree courses.
The panel included Lorely Burt, Liberal Democrat Party MP for Solihull; Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat Party MP for Cambridge; Andrew Freeman, Director of The Finance Foundation, Tony Quinn, Santander and our very own Johnny Luk. It was all held together by our brilliant chair Mark Williamson, Group Business Correspondent of The Herald.
We’ve loved hosting these question time events with Santander and we will strive to keep representing the student voice to the government and beyond.
If you liked SEQT (or if you couldn’t make it) why not take a look at our upcoming events. Coming soon: Startup Career Launchpad, Varsity Pitch and The Student Enterprise Conference