Philip Green funds business school
BILLIONAIRE Topshop owner Philip Green is going back to school, setting up a new training college to help teenagers become the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Green is footing most of the bill for a scheme that could cost up to £15m through his Arcadia family-controlled company, owner of the Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Topshop fashion stores.
The initiative marks the first time a fashion retailer has given financial support for the Government's programme of education reform to help schools raise standards.
The Department for Education and Skills is committed to contributing a substantial amount to fund the project.
Monaco-based tax exile Green, who this summer pulled out of a £9.1bn attempt to buy Marks & Spencer, is also donating £1.25m for 50 schools, the equivalent of £25,000 per school, to become specialists in teaching business.
Green is famous for his suspicion of the merits of further education, having left school at 16 and made his fortune starting with a £21,000 loan from the family's bank manager to trade in clothes. His retail empire now includes Bhs.
But he said the idea for an academy was aimed at '16, 17 and 18-year-olds who don't want to go to university.' His Arcadia group already employs 100 trainees a year including A-level school leavers and graduates.
Education Secretary Charles Clarke said it had been difficult to build bridges between businesses and the education system because of 'decades, some would say centuries, of distrust'.
