Education, Education, Education - not if you want to be an entrepreneur!

16th July 2007

A new survey of small business bosses has revealed that less than half have a degree and only 11 per cent believe that having a good education is crucial to being a success in business...

With entrepreneurial spirit at an all time high and more than 100,000 new businesses being formed every quarter,** educational qualifications are no barrier to success in the UK as 20 per cent of our small business owner-managers are educated to GCSE level or below according to the survey by Barclays Local Business.

There are around 4.3 million SMEs in the UK and it seems that graduates of the ‘University of Life’ are more switched-on to starting-up alone in business, following in the famous footsteps of Gordon Ramsay, Simon Cowell, Dame Anita Roddick, Jacqueline Gold and Richard Branson.

With this years’ hike in tuition fees, the NUS estimates that someone starting their three year degree in London last September could graduate with debts of more than £27,000 so it’s perhaps no surprise that some young people in the UK are choosing to shun higher education in favour of more immediate financial returns.

Teenage gamer Jordan McGreevy, left school to run his own computer empire (www.futurerp.net) at just 16. He said; “Having worked on my game during the last few years at school, I felt confident that I knew enough about the field to not go to university. It is hard work, but with any luck I won’t have to work as hard in the future. University would have been a good experience, but I prefer the challenge of learning on my own.”

John Davis, marketing director for Barclays Local Business said: "This survey really does suggest that entrepreneurialism is a quality born to people, rather than taught. At Barclays we offer advice and support to people of all ages and educational background in their quest to succeed in running a business."

Entrepreneurs in the Capital are most likely to have a degree (57 per cent) with the North East least likely (36 per cent). Again, it’s the above regions topping and tailing the class rankings, with 71 per cent and 50 per cent defining themselves as middle class respectively.

The survey also reveals that the entrepreneurial world is dominated (65 per cent) by the middle class, with only 26 per cent claiming to be working class.

*Taken from research carried out by YouGov on behalf of Barclays Local Business Banking. Total sample size was 2427 SME owner-managers from across the UK. Fieldwork was undertaken between 11-17 May 2007. The survey was carried out online. The figures have not been weighted.

**According to the latest Barclays quarterly start-up figures

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