Inspiring young Londoners

I’m Ben Nowell, and I’m working as an Events Coordinator intern at the Greater London Authority. My school (Bexleyheath) is one the Mayor’s Academies and I joined the GLA in October through my academy's internship programme.

One of the first meetings of my placement was for ‘InspiresMeWeek’, part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The event is placing 57 students from the Mayoral Academies into companies where they will shadow key personnel for four days so that they learn what it takes to become an entrepreneur. I thought this was a great idea, and left the meeting raring to go.

Working at the GLA has given me an insight into office life and helped me organise myself better. This is the kind of insight I want to give the students taking part in ‘InspiresMeWeek’, helping them understand what office life and business is all about and helping prepare them for the future.

I am most excited about the event at City Hall on Friday - the culmination of the week. The students will have a couple of hours to create an environmentally friendly product and just two minutes to pitch their ideas to the judges!

I would be very proud to have an event that I worked on help young adults realise their ambitions and decide on a career path – that would be amazing.

I believe that ‘InspiresMeWeek’ should go nationwide… Manchester, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Swansea, Glasgow. It could even go global, inspiring young people everywhere to be their own boss.

Once I finish working on ‘InspiresMeWeek’, I’ll move to the health team here doing an event around World Aids Day with young adults and charities.

I’ve realised that whatever I do I want to help others succeed, whether by doing events like this, becoming an MP or just simple charity work with young adults.

I really enjoy working at the GLA. The people are friendly and help you whenever you need it, and I love the building too.