Could business lessons for schoolchildren renew Jersey's "enterprise spirit"?

Tuesday 01 August 2023

Providing lessons to schoolchildren about how to set up and run a business on the island could be part of the key to reviving Jersey's "enterprise spirit", according to the Economic Development Minister.

Deputy Kirsten Morel that he was hoping to include an 'Enterprise Strategy' as part of his overall delivery plan next year – and that he was hoping this could include work with the Education Department.

The initiative was briefly described in the Common Strategic Policy – which sets out the Government's main priorities over the next four years – as a way to "identify opportunities to cut red tape, incentivise start-ups, and help established businesses to grow and thrive".

Deputy Morel discussed his desire to renew the Island's "enterprise spirit" during a hearing of the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel in October.

He said that "a lot of work" had since taken place with regard to "elements of economic development that will encourage enterprise".

"We engaged Jersey Business [who have been] speaking with businesses throughout the Island in all sorts of different sectors, effectively to survey their views on where Jersey has processes and systems that make it really hard to do business in the Island.

"So the idea there is for us to be able to re-engineer those various systems in all sorts of areas and for me to work with other ministers, to make it as simple as possible to do business in the Island from an administrative perspective," he explained.

Pictured: Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel.

"All Islanders should be able to grow up feeling they can start their own business in Jersey."

He added that he hoped to include the Enterprise Strategy within his delivery plan next year.

"We would also have input from the Education Department and the Education Minister [Inna Gardiner] as to how we can inject more of a culture of creativity and help people at the school level, particularly [those doing] GCSE and A levels, have a better understanding of how they can come up with ideas for different businesses – and beyond that the skills and understanding of how you go about doing that," he continued.

"The idea is to give them the tools they need so that when they are in their 20s or early 30s they feel confident that if they want to go forward in business, they can do that."