I want a socially motivated career, says Euan: Tony Blair's eldest son quits City to recruit apprentices (but he's still got his property empire to fall back on)
- Euan Blair, 32, said his heart was set on convincing smart kids with good grades to get apprenticeships instead of going to university
- He's set up a company to match young people with potential employers
- Also owns 27 flats in Manchester and Stockport with mother Cherie, which they rent out
Euan Blair with his mother, Cherie, with whom he runs a buy-to-let property firm
Tony Blair’s eldest son has vowed to pursue a ‘socially motivated’ career after beginning his working life at one of the world’s biggest investment banks.
In his first interview, Euan Blair, who owns a property empire with his mother Cherie, said he wants to help young people get jobs as apprentices.
Euan, 32, said his heart was set on convincing more ‘smart kids’ with good grades to become apprentices at 16 rather than going to university.
He has set up a company called WhiteHat to help match young people to potential employers.
It is a change in direction for Euan, who began working at Morgan Stanley after university, but one that he can probably afford.
He is a director of buy-to-let property firm Oldbury Residential Ltd, co-owned with his 62-year-old mother. Between them, they own 27 flats in Manchester and Stockport which they rent out. The mother and son also co-own the £4.4million townhouse where Euan lives with his wife Suzanne in central London.
The six-storey, Grade II-listed home was bought for £3.6million in 2013 and has undergone a sumptuous refurbishment including a designer kitchen.
At the time, former investment banker Euan was rumoured to be eyeing up the safe Labour seat of Bootle, near his mother’s childhood home in Merseyside.
But speaking to the Times Educational Supplement for its issue published yesterday, Euan insisted he had no plans to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an MP.
‘The aim is here … to transform post-16 education, and to do that in a way we feel is really effective. Now, we see this as a long-term plan. There’s nothing else in the pipeline, no plans to do anything else.’
After university, Euan worked at Morgan Stanley.
He added: ‘I found it really interesting, but I didn’t love it, so I wanted to do something more socially motivated and aligned to policy areas I was really interested in – employment and education.’
His next job was at a welfare-to-work provider, for the long-term unemployed in the Midlands.
With father Tony Blair, mother Cherie and brother Nicky in 2005 as they voted in Sedgefield. He says he will not be heading into politics like his father
He went on to establish his own company last February. Explaining the name, he said WhiteHat came from westerns, in which the character wearing a white hat ‘was traditionally the hero of the piece’.
‘We very much see ourselves as trying to save the day in apprenticeships – that mission element is very important to us,’ he added. ‘If [apprenticeships] are going to be taken seriously, they can’t just be seen as the option for kids who aren’t that academically bright, who were never going to go to university
‘We want a situation where smart kids, who could go to Oxbridge or Russell Group universities, have to make a difficult decision – “Do I go down that route, or do I join this incredible apprenticeship scheme at a top UK corporate or really exciting tech start-up?”’
Euan Blair said he wants 'smart kids' to consider alternatives to university
WhiteHat’s Twitter account says the company offers an ‘Ivy League of apprenticeships’ – which combine studying and earning on the job.
The firm is funded by Global University Systems, a multinational education provider which boasts 40,000 students at its specialist institutions around the world.
Euan employs 18 people and is delivering around 70 apprenticeships in London and the South East. He plans to expand nationally.
Current clients include tech firm Dyson, estate agents Foxtons and investment bank Nomura.
Euan said in some cases, WhiteHat advises employers not to use the word ‘apprenticeship’ at all, due to the ‘stigma’ attached.
‘We’re telling them, don’t make them a special class of employee… In some cases, don’t even brand them as apprenticeships … Give them the same kind of benefits, give them the same kind of employment contract, similar terms, pay them a similar level, because then you’ve not got that distinction and stigma.’
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