Changethinking

Archive for the ‘Thirdsectorweb’ Category

Europa have just released the latest 2009 state of entrepreneurship survey – which interestingly shows that 45% of Europeans would like to be their own boss, if they could.

The EU survey suggests that entrepreneurs are held in lower regard in Europe than their contemporaries in the USA.

The survey highlights the differing attitudes in the US, Europe and Asia to entrepreneurship, but does show that the preference for self-employment remained stable across all regions.

Women seem to lag behind men and young people as a cohort expressing a preference for self employment.

Those surveyed shared their opinions of entrpreneurial individuals as either ‘job creators’ or as ‘exploiters’.

What was not a feature of the survey, to its detriment we think, is factoring in social entrepreneurship or the context of social enterprise as a vehicle for community business change.

Perhaps if more Europeans knew more about social enterprise or social entrepreneurs,  or the impact the sector can have on communities – the range of relative levels of hesitancy to outright distrust of entrepreneurship expressed might be very different.

What do you think?

You can find the survey synopsis here.

The entry pages to the European Small Business Portal can be found here.

‘Home Access is the new Government programme which will help to ensure that more children in England have access to technology at home to support learning. Eligible low-income families (eligibility is based on the criteria for free school meals) with learners in Years 3 to 9 will be able to apply for a grant to buy a computer and internet package’.

It is intended that this new government initiative will benefit at least 270,000 households in the UK.

The packages offered to families also include assistive technology, to make sure access by young learners on-line is at its most effective.

Parents and carers can review information on the Becta website here. (Becta is the organisation dedicated to the innovative use of technology in education).

Schools who wish to actively participate in the programme can find Home Access information here.

Detailed information for parents, carers and organisations who wish to support the Home Access programme can be found here.