A few months ago, a friend of mine tried to volunteer to become a Leader in his local Scout Group. His son was a Beaver Scout in the Colony and his enthusiasm for Scouting had quickly rubbed off on his dad. However, the Group didn’t want him. My friend wanted to work with the Scout…
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced today that it will support every school in developing and running its own business through the Enterprise Champions Programme. I welcome the announcement which supports my belief (and that of Young Enterprise) that young people of all ages deserve the opportunity to develop the enterprise and…
The last nine months have been extraordinarily busy for Young Enterprise. Last summer, we recognised a need to bring the various regional charities in England and Wales closer together. Last night, at midnight, a merger took place, meaning that there is now one Young Enterprise for England and Wales, rather than a collection of autonomous…
The opening ceremony had been billed as starting at 9:00am. Everyone had got up really early, had packed their tents and put all their luggage on army lorries, ready to transport them to their various expedition centres. The Europeans, at least, were seated in the main arena at 8:30am as requested. I began to realise…
I spent the morning wandering around Nairobi, visited the bank, found a Java Coffee house for an excellent breakfast and chatted to Ross and his team. Very relaxed. In the afternoon we moved on to Rowallen Camp Site, the main camping ground for the Moot. Everything looked as though it was running smoothly by the…
I arrived in Kenya this morning, fairly bleary eyed from a long but not uncomfortable journey. Immigration, for once, was a cinch. A big smile from the immigration officer (something I’ve never received before), electronic fingerprinting (also new) and a complete inability to find any records of previous visits in the system (some things never…
This morning, just after rush hour, I was on the tube, heading for a meeting in central London. As luck would have it, I was heading south from Kings Cross to Holborn. As we passed through Russell Square station, I glanced at a small group of people on the platform. They were standing still,…
The importance of a volunteering culture – an article for PublicNet
You may have picked up today’s campaign announcement by David Cameron of a proposed National Citizen Service, a two month summer programme for 16-year olds, involving both residential and at-home components. If the Conservative Party were to form the next government, the programme would be delivered by independent charities, social enterprises and businesses. The programme…