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In Focus
Peterborough is languishing at the bottom of the country’s education league tables. It’s a worrying situation for parents, teachers, city leaders and everyone who has a stake in the education of the city’s young people. But according to one of the city’s leading entrepreneurs, Peterborough businesses cannot afford to ignore the crisis either. Mike Greene talks to The Peterborough Hub about why education should be at the top of the business agenda.
www.thepeterboroughhub.co.uk
March 2020
BUSINESSES MUST PUT EDUCATION TOP OF THE AGENDA
For all of his wealth – and the fame which followed his involvement in the hit Channel 4 series The Secret Millionaire – Mike Greene certainly has a colourful turn of phrase and the ability and willingness to tell it how it is. Putting lipstick on a pig is the least colourful of the metaphors he uses to describe efforts to improve Peterborough without addressing what he sees as the issue which lays at the very heart of the city’s problems - its failing education system. The other involves covering excrement with a delicious brown confectionary. Not a phrase suitable perhaps for the first edition of a new business magazine, but one that conveys a very clear message. What Mike means is that no matter what you do to “dress it up”, nothing is going to actually make Peterborough better until the problem of education is addressed. However, despite the inherent suggestion that Peterborough deserves its reputation as one of the worst places in the country to live, Mike obviously loves the city. As he says, he could choose to live and run his businesses from anywhere in the world, but he chooses Peterborough because it is where he has lived since the age of 11 and he has a ingrained fondness for the place. He said: “I have spoken at every school in the city, I have mentored many businesses and I have supported more than 100 charities here because I love this city, but that doesn’t
change the fact that we are 152 out of 152 local authorities in terms of primary education and ninth from bottom in secondary education.
“If education is the primary lens through which people view Peterborough, they will not consider moving here.
“To me that’s a problem, but if you speak to many of the councillors or MP, who are obviously looking to be re-elected, they will always tells you that results are better than the year before.
“And of course, there’s the most obvious aspect which is that the students of today will be the workforce of tomorrow and it’s important for businesses that they have access to educated and motivated employees.
“That may be the case but we are still bottom and we need to face the facts. “And I think that this is an issue that businesses should be very concerned about for a number of reasons. “For example, if you lived outside Peterborough and were looking to relocate here what is the first thing many people would look at? “The schools. They are often the most important thing people consider when they are looking to move to a new area.
“So education is a real issue for businesses and I think if Peterborough was a business we would have sacked the head of education a long time ago.” Mike firmly believes that the problem with education stems from the eagerness of those in a position to change things to stick their heads in the sand and refuse to admit there is a problem. Only by looking at the facts as they truly are, rather than with rose tinted glasses, will things
