After decades working in the music industry, Robert Stephenson decided to put his experience to good use when he set up Blastbeat in 2003. The not-for-profit business gives young people an opportunity to learn about enterprise through setting up event management companies.

"In the past I had given young people work experience in the office at the record company," he says. "They loved promoting events."
Stephenson came up with the idea of going into schools with a three-month programme during which students set up their own production team and stage a music event from scratch. "It is a great way of engaging with young people and teaching them a skill set around business—how to work as a team, work to deadlines, build confidence and have fun with what they are doing," he says.

Blastbeat involves everything from setting up the team and writing a business plan to scouting for young musicians, finding a venue and selling tickets. The programme culminates in a show at the O2 arena where the bands play (with contracts up for grabs) and the students' new companies show off their work at a trade fair attended by industry heavyweights.

So far, more than 10,000 young people have benefited. "All of them now understand what it is to run a little company, make some money and give back. The idea is to create social entrepreneurs, so they give 25 per cent of profits to a good cause," says Stephenson. "They decide the cause and there is great satisfaction for them in handing over a donation personally."

Underserved communities make up 70 per cent of his intake. "We have seen many kids who were dropping out of the system and getting into trouble," he says. "This inspires them and changes their lives. A lot of the kids we've worked with in London would not be the ones who think about starting their own business. They would be the ones thinking, 'Can I get a job in Morrisons?' Nobody has taught them what it could be like. There is a terrible lack of initiative to give young people an opportunity to be entrepreneurial."

Blastbeat has even been piloted with nine-year-olds. It has received funding from the old Department for Children, Schools and Families, but with cuts on the way Stephenson can't take that kind of income for granted. He is seeking corporate sponsors but also looking to get companies involved in mentoring.

"This is David Cameron's idea about the Big Society, but it is putting meat on the bones. It is all very well saying 'volunteer here and there' but doing what exactly?" he asks. "If you left the office now and went down to the local school and said, 'I'd like to teach the kids,' they'd look at you strangely. It is not easy if it is not properly organised, and Blastbeat is."