Page 73 - guidance-supporting-europe-s-aspiring-entrepreneurs-policy-and-practice-to-harness-future-potential

Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

Example 2. Entrepreneurs as role models, Wales

Dynamo is part of a range of activities under the Entrepreneurship action plan for wales (EAP).
Dynamo role models are business owners who have been recruited and trained to ‘enthuse’ young
people and convey positive messages about entrepreneurship. They achieve this by visiting schools
and colleges to deliver presentations in the classroom during which they share their experiences of
owning and running a business with groups of pupils and students. The hour long presentations and
accompanying activities offer young people a real insight into what it is like to run a business. They
also outline the skills and attributes required to be a successful entrepreneur, and explain their
personal entrepreneurial journeys. The five key points that all role models are encouraged and
trained to promote through their activities include:
• encourage self-belief and positive thinking;
• inspire and motivate pupils to realise they are in control of their own future;
• educate about the reality of ‘being your own boss’: highs, lows, risks and rewards;
• draw out entrepreneurial characteristics and encourage pupils to reflect on them;
• stimulate entrepreneurial behaviour in pupils.
The Role Models also occasionally visit and present in entrepreneurship-oriented festivals,
careers fairs and other business events.

Role models
Role models are recruited through a variety of methods, the most common being word of mouth
through referrals of fellow role models. Advertisements, Careers Wales (a Welsh service agency for
information, advice and guidance) and recruitment agencies have also been used. The project team
has also targeted individual business owners who are considered appropriate candidates.
Role Models are required to attend a two-day training course. They are offered a fee in return
for each presentation they make. This fee is offered as a cost reimbursement payment as opposed
to a professional fee. Costs per presentation vary from GBR 87 to GBR 188 (EUR 104-EUR 226).
Over 300 role models are currently registered and they have carried out tens of thousands of
presentations to hundreds of thousands of pupils/students over the last few years.
An external evaluation concluded that the role model programme has been well received in
schools across Wales. The interactive and participative approach of role models works particularly
well with school-age children, while new approaches are being developed to address HE students.

Impact
The realistic accounts of the journeys of the entrepreneurs appear to make a big impression on
pupils and suggest a clear impact in terms of enthusing them and overcoming stereotypical
perceptions of business owners. Role models themselves consider that they make a positive
difference through raising aspirations and promoting ‘can-do’ attitudes among pupils and students.
The fact that role models are local entrepreneurs, who come from the communities served by the
schools they visit, means pupils can relate to them more readily.
The networking events and conferences role models have helped to stage create a sense
among role models that they belong to a collective entity or club, which has had a positive impact on
retention. Individual role models have also often praised the learning that they have gained from
presentations and interaction with students; the work with students has, for example, improved
communication skills of some entrepreneurs and their ability to promote and market their business
to potential clients.

Source: Arad Consulting, 2007.

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