Our Journey

EiA is awarded a contract by the UK Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) to deliver ‘Ending Exclusion through Entrepreneurship’. EiA partnered with the From Boyhood to Manhood Foundation and Connexions to deliver the 8-week programme which involved young people from disadvantaged and excluded backgrounds from Southwark, Kennington and Peckham, including ex-gang members. They were taught about the positive benefits of entrepreneurship and how that could be used in their lives. At the end of the programme participants pitched business plans to World Heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and also the European head of Def Jam records.

The UK Department of Education and Skills (DFES) awards EIA a two-year government contract to deliver the UK’s largest enterprise schools pathfinder pilot in Birmingham.  The programme involved working with 15 schools and over 40 businesses. 2000 students participated in the programme over the 2 years. The enterprise pathfinders were part of the UK government’s national strategy to raise the profile of enterprise education in schools.

EiA’s CEO, Derek Browne, is awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion at Buckingham Palace in recognition for his work with young people following leaving his career in banking. The award was only given to 10 individuals per annum. The Queen’s awards office invited Derek to become an ambassador for the awards.

EiA is approved as a national gifted and talented provider by the UK Department for Education.

EiA awarded an Olympic Delivery Authority contract to provide a ‘value added’ apprenticeship, which developed the business and soft skills of the construction apprentices working on the Olympic site. EiA worked with over 250 apprentices over a two-year period.

EIA secures first international partnership with CIDA, a university based in Johannesburg for disadvantaged students, to run an entrepreneurship and Classroom to Boardroom programme.

This involved 50 students who were from low income families from across South Africa. Students presented their solutions to senior executives of Standard Bank in their boardroom. In the same year, EiA designs and launches the $20 Challenge, an annual programme which is undertaken by students in schools in Barbados. in partnership with the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation.

EiA is awarded exemplar Olympic contractor and case study status. EiA were one of 123 out of over 8,000 contractors who were awarded this for their innovative work in the construction sector.

EiA launches Classroom to Boardroom in Kenya in partnership with McKinney Rogers Foundation and Strathmore University and KCB bank. This involved working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

EiA works with the Gibraltar government and Kusuma trust to provide motivational entrepreneurial programmes to the island’s state schools.

EiA works with members of the European and UK leadership team of Starbucks on a talent and engagement strategy for baristas.

EiA runs a Classroom to Boardroom programme with CERN in Switzerland. The students presented their solutions to the senior executives of CERN in IdeaSquare, CERN’s innovation space.

In response to the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, EiA worked with 10 CEOs of the largest investment management industry to understand how the industry could engage and recruit more young black talent. This was led on behalf of the industry by Mitesh Steth, CEO of Redington and supported by the Diversity Project. The programme was the first and only industry response in the UK, bringing business leaders together collectively to learn how to improve the diversity of their industry. Participating firms included Morgan Stanley Investment Management, St James’s Place, Aon, Fidelity, Invesco, Mercer, Wellington Investment Management, Cardano, LCP and Redington.

EiA runs its first programme in China with St James’s Place China, Geely Design and YK Pao and the first Gen Z insight programme with UEFA to take place during a live sports championship event (Euro 2020).