Home / About the Week

What happened in 2012

In November 2012, Youth Business International hosted Global Entrepreneurship Week in the UK, in partnership with Barclays.

279,500 people attended over 3,200 events, organised by 532 partner organisations - a 30% increase on the 2011 campaign.

Events took place in every part of the UK, run by a wide range of partners including the public sector, SMEs, schools/FE colleges, universities and not-for-profit organisations.

There was a huge diversity of events, including small workshops, classes in schools, debates, conferences, competitions and awards ceremonies.

Read our evaluation report to get the full details, or check out a quick summary below:

Evaluation report

What was the effect of the week on participants?

  • 92% of participants said that following the week, they would be proactively taking steps towards their entrepreneurial goal
  • 64% of participants who were not entrepreneurs said that they were encouraged to think about starting their own business
  • 25% of participants said that they had acquired new skills
  • 46% of participants who were entrepreneurs said that they had been able to make useful new contacts

Raising awareness of entrepreneurship

  • Through the campaign, 738 pieces of media coverage were generated - helping to showcase successful entrepreneurs, inspiring enterprise-initiatives and promoting entrepreneurship generally.

  • 6000 tweets mentioned the #GEWPassItOn hashtag during the week, which was also a trending topic on London on the morning of the Global Entrepreneurship Week launch event.

The theme for 2012

The theme for 2012 was “Pass It On”, and we used Global Entrepreneurship Week UK to pass on the practical help & support needed by early start-ups and individuals who are considering taking the plunge.

We created a collaborative, local and practical week which enabled people to learn more about the wealth of support that is available to entrepreneurs in the UK.

Through the week, we set out to:

  • Encourage those people who are not yet entrepreneurs to think about starting up their own business
  • Improve entrepreneurship skills for aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups
  • Help people to access practical support - locally, regionally and nationally

We did this by passing on skills, contacts, knowledge, confidence and resources.

Watch a video message from The Prince of Wales