Determined to Succeed

Destined to Fail

An £86m school business scheme backed by money from Tom Hunter to make pupils more enterprising is failing.

..and today's lesson in entrepreneurship is...............dohhhhhhhh!!

Determined to Succeed was set up in March 2003 but three years on, half of all education authorities are still only in the early stages of setting up business links.

It would appear that many businesses and schools found the project confusing.

Having attended a local meeting here in Perthshire there is no confusion whatsoever as to why the project is failing. We have first hand experience of the apathy in relation to the project - in fact the day we attended there was a fall of snow so the pupils and teachers didn't bother to turn up leaving those of us that made the effort to get there sitting twiddling our thumbs.

The presentation was useless, ill informed issues we raised weren't addressed - like for instance, why does the council expect local businesses to support this project when they themselves are struggling because their local council doesn't help or support them. Most major contracts awarded by Perth and Kinross Council go to companies outside the area.

The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy from the council.

Craig Ferguson once known as Bing Hitler and now America's Scot of the moment was quoted in the Daily Mail recently with his very scathing views of Scottish attitudes to success:

'Scotland is a place where mediocrity is seen as excellence and excellence is seen as treason. To strive for some kind of bigger, wider, enormous impact outside Scotland is not to be trusted.'

Well, guess he won't be rushing back here to live now that he has found success!!