Apprentices are three times more entrepreneurial than the average young person

Emma Finamore
13 May 2016

A massive 70.7% of the apprentices questioned confirmed they feel positive about entrepreneurship in the UK today.

Apprentices are more than three times as positive about entrepreneurship as their non-apprentice peers, according to new research.

The Entrepreneur’s Circle and Skillwise interviewed apprentices and found that 70% feel positive about entrepreneurship today; over half said they would consider launching their own start-up in the future

In contrast, a recent YouGov survey by Google found that just one fifth of the general population aged between 15-18 would consider starting their own business.
41 apprentices aged between 16 and 24 participated in the Skillwise poll, which found that 51% said they were “very likely” or “likely” to launch their own start-up in the future, compared to just 22% of those involved in the Google study.

A massive 70.7% of the apprentices questioned confirmed they feel positive about entrepreneurship in the UK today.

In comparison, when asked their views about starting a business, 51% of Skillwise apprentices said it would a “responsible” decision, compared to 56% of Google’s YouGov pool suggesting it would be “risky” and a further 11% considering it to be “reckless”.

Starting a business is however not seen as high risk by the majority of apprentices interviewed, with 58% perceiving it only as a moderate risk and a further 10% stating it as low risk, compared to the YouGov research that reported how 45% of females and 39% of boys “fear failure”.

One major difference between the groups is exposure to business environments: in the Google study, a third of respondents added that they didn’t know anyone that had launched their own company, while over 90% of apprentices said they know someone who has launched, or is running their own business.

Nigel Botterill, founder of The Entrepreneur’s Circle said: “Almost all of the apprentices we spoke to have been working in small businesses via the Skillwise programme for at least three months. It’s clear that as such they already have a very different attitude to entrepreneurship.

“What this tells us is that we’ve got to expose apprentices to small businesses as they are the life blood of the economy. Over 47,000 businesses have launched in the last month alone** and the reality is that a significant percentage will flourish and succeed; therefore it is in everyone’s interests to get apprenticeships into small businesses.

“Skillwise and The EC connect business owners and apprentices every day and we can clearly see the benefits from both sides of the fence.”

Further findings identified that 58.5% of Skillwise apprentices felt that having their own business would make their future more stable, while 73% said that they would like to be in control of their own destiny and "to be my own boss", with a further 70% suggesting that growing a successful, profitable business would give them real pride.

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