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15,000 mentors for small businesses and entrepreneurs

Mark Prisk announces key milestones in mentoring support at the start of the first Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Europe.

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Mark Prisk has announced that the Get Mentoring initiative to recruit 15,000 volunteer business mentors has now passed the halfway mark, with more than 7,500 signed up.

He also announced the first Mentoring Ambassadors, prominent entrepreneurs Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, Mike Southon, Carl Hopkins and Penny Power.

Trained mentors are deployed through mentorsme.co.uk, the UK’s national gateway, operated by the British Bankers Association, for businesses looking for mentoring services.

This year the Government is running the Business in You campaign to encourage more people to start or grow their business throughout 2012 using a range of existing support services, including mentoring.

Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said:

“The Government is committed to making the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

“We have already launched a new BusinessLink website to provide a single comprehensive place for people to get the information they need to start a business and will be providing coaching opportunities for high growth potential businesses.

“Creating a network of thousands of business mentors will give SMEs access to a wealth of knowledge from entrepreneurs who have been there and done it before. It’s encouraging that so many people are signing up to be business mentors and that we are continuing to get the support of influential entrepreneurs who are joining our campaign to boost business mentoring across the UK.”

The Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool is the largest gathering of start-up champions from around the world. From 9th-16th March there will be a range of activities to champion the entrepreneurial spirit of business people in the UK and around the world.

Mentoring Ambassadors

In another step forward for the programme, the Mentoring Ambassadors are throwing their support behind plans to create a network of tens of thousands of business mentors and promote the Get Mentoring initiative and mentorsme portal.

Read their Blogs On becoming Ambassadors and some of their top tips

Founder of The Black Farmer, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones said on becoming an Ambassador:

“I am a great believer that anyone serious about starting a business should make sure they have a mentor they can turn to, especially someone who has trodden the same path before them because the advice that they give will be borne out of a similar experience to their own. I am a huge supporter of the Get Mentoring scheme and pleased to be a part of it.”

Entrepreneur and founder of Ecademy, Penny Power said:

“Mentoring has been a critical aspect of my personal journey, often informally provided in conversations with business friends, when I have talked through challenges, opportunities and how to achieve goals and execute my vision.

“I am delighted to be supporting the Mentorsme programme and look forward to encouraging many more people to ask for help and receive it from people who have been there and care about their success.”

Published 12 March 2012