Mentoring: Tech charity's recipe for success

There are several charities that bring together the tech sector with good causes and, as Tony Hallett learns, tapping your experience might be just as important as tapping your wallet.

The Prince's Trust's Technology Leadership Group (TLG) arm has passed the £5m milestone in its fundraising for young people setting up tech or heavily technology-dependent businesses - and continues its record in being more successful than banks in backing new ventures.

Richard Holway, for many years the most prominent IT industry analyst in the UK, was a co-founder of the Prince's Trust TLG and last week attended a celebratory dinner at Windsor Castle at which Prince Charles addressed more than 250 guests involved in the TLG.

But far above and beyond the royal occasion - "the intros were hair-raising in their own right", Holway tells me - it is perhaps the achievements of TLG-backed individuals and their ventures that stand out.

Fifty-eight per cent of the start-ups created using the allocated funds are still trading in their third year, a number far above the national average.

Holway says: "That number actually underestimates the success. Some [of the entrepreneurs] stop and go into full-time employment or education instead, which I still consider a success."

The TLG often deals with young people who have been in care or prison, people Holway calls the "seriously disadvantaged, the sometimes seriously damaged", and he is clear why the approach has gone well.

The great and good of the industry that are members, some 50-plus top tech companies with operations in the UK, supply mentors to those starting out in business, mentors who stay with them for typically between two and five years.

"These are not so much individuals who want something to put down on their CVs," said Holway. "They are people who can supply time, experience and commitment."

And while last week's event, attended by the charity's namesake, marked the £5m figure, Holway says the TLG is well on its way to £6m, with new members regularly coming on board.

Holway is the current chair of the Prince's Trust TLG which he co-founded in 2002 with James Bennet and ex-Staffware boss John O'Connell, both well known in UK tech circles.

For more information on The Prince's Trust Technology Leadership Group's activities, events and how businesses can get involved please visit www.princes-trust.org.uk/technology or contact Jamie Webb on 020 7543 1317 or at jamie.webb@princes-trust.org.uk.