Risky Business? Youth And The Enterprise Culture

'Our mission is to develop an enterprise culture in the North to replace a dependency culture'. This statement captures both the essence of government policy for the depressed regions and the paramount objective of the industry which has grown up to deliver enterprise to them. During the 1980s, The Enterprise Years, according to the title of Lord Young's autobiography (1990), thousands of millions of pounds have been spent on an ideological project to transform the culture of education, training and employment within the United Kingdom and it has been one of the policies dearest to the heart of Mrs Thatcher's Government. It is time for an independent report on what is done in the name of enterprise, what happens to young people who set up their own businesses and what wider impact such policies have had on the political and economic experiences of school-leavers struggling to find a secure toehold in the labour market.