Yesterday we hosted our second Student Entrepreneurs Question Time with Santander. Sixty students and educators flocked to The Library of Birmingham- a stones throw from the Conservative 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 enterprise education and what more banks, corporates and government can be doing to support young entrepreneurs.
Panellists from the world of politics and business told the audience of students that today’s young entrepreneurs need to be prepared to fail in order to learn, develop and succeed. However, they warned that to succeed in business they also need to be passionate about what they are doing, recognise the skills they don't have, and seek expert advice to negotiate complications such as managing intellectual property, exporting, contracts and funding.
But students at the SEQT event claimed they needed more flexibility within university timetables for aspiring entrepreneurs and introducing assessment of entrepreneurial work undertaken during university degree courses as well as academic study.
The panel included Conservative MP’s Nick Boles and Nadhim Zahawi MP, serial entrepreneur Sherry Coutu, Santander’s Managing Director of SME Markets & Business Development Stephen Dury and our very own CEO Johnny Luk. It was chaired by Andrew Clark, Deputy Business Editor at the Times.
We’ll be doing it all over again next week in Glasgow (Tuesday 7th October). We can’t wait to see you there!