Young enterprise should not be wasted, says expert
Oct 6 2009 Agenda, Birmingham Post
Jackie Brierton looks at how we should be using the entrepreneurial spirit of young people.
Unemployment and economic inactivity among the young in the West Midlanders is arguably the biggest challenge our region faces during and beyond the current recession.
The official figures are worrying enough. Young people’s unemployment is at its highest level since records began, even before we add in those who left school this summer, along with unsuccessful further education applicants.
Back in March it was estimated that nearly a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds in the West Midlands were not in employment, education or training.
The actual rate may now be over 30 per cent. This represents tens of thousands of young people with nothing to do and little hope for the future.
We also have the highest overall rate of unemployment in the UK – 10.6 per cent in the West Midlands compared to 7.8 per cent nationally. This is coupled with the lowest level of net job vacancies, so it’s not overstating the extent of the challenge to say that the problems our young people face in this region are acute.
Everybody from the Prince’s Trust to the Chambers of Commerce have been keen to point out that this year’s school leavers could be the hardest hit since the depression of the 1930s, with fears of a “lost generation” of young people, whose future is one of dole queues.
While there is considerable government and media recognition of these challenges and the need to tackle them, there tends not to be any significant focus around enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Take, for example, the Future Jobs Fund, which comes on stream this month, aimed at creating 150,000 jobs in the next three years.
This is worth about £1 billion and is targeted towards young people, but crucially has no provision for self-employment or business start-ups.
Yet, with £6,500 investment available per job through this particular strand of activity, there is the risk of missing a key chance to help unemployed young people use their enterprising skills to develop their own opportunities.
Even the recently launched “Backing Young Britain” campaign – which encourages the public, private and third sectors to commit to a range of actions designed to provide work experience and training places for young people – makes little reference to the role of enterprise.
As one of four centres set up by Advantage West Midlands to focus on developing the enterprise culture in the region, the Young People’s Enterprise Centre Of Expertise (YPECOE) has been undertaking work to identify ways in which the natural spirit of enterprise in 15 to 25-year-olds is harnessed.
YPECOE works with the West Midlands Enterprise Board, connecting enterprise activity in schools, further and higher education, along with young entrepreneurs and community-based enterprises for young people.
Earlier this year, YPECOE carried out an initial review of young people’s enterprise activity in the West Midlands and we were surprised by the volume of projects across the region which involved and empowered young people – but which rarely connected with enterprise support and initiatives.
This disconnection starts at policy level, where different government departments fund activities to fulfil their own policy requirements and there is little cross-cutting or coordination.
So, although we’re encouraging young people to be enterprising from an earlier age and we’re enabling them to deliver enterprising projects and activities, there’s still not enough support available to help them translate their experience and enthusiasm into potential self-employment or business opportunities.
Since this review was concluded, work has focused on identifying young entrepreneurs in the region and looking at the level of help available to them.
The figures provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) shows that the West Midlands has a higher level of 18 to 34-year-olds engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity than the national average. And the region also has a higher level of graduates involved in entrepreneurial activity.
This shows that there is a solid rationale for enterprise and business support focused at younger people in the West Midlands, with major potential for a new wave of young business owners who have benefited from help at an earlier age.
One of the truisms of enterprise policy is that it is not the public sector that creates enterprise. But what it can do is provide the environment to enable enterprise to flourish.
In order to truly achieve this, we need to listen to the views of young people who are either already involved in enterprise or have a strong interest in it.
To this end a forum for young people is being launched next month, providing us with a means of accessing their views on enterprise policy and support. This Young People’s Enterprise Partnership will play an important role in championing young people’s enterprise in the West Midlands and providing appropriate feedback on current support.
Other measures include joining up the many strands of activity already taking place through a web portal being developed in partnership with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Business Link and other sub-regional partners.
Ultimately, the key challenge is to find ways for young enterprise to become part of mainstream business support and this is the role the Young People’s Enterprise Centre of Expertise has to play.
The potential our young people offer is great for our future economy, but it is up to those in positions of power to ensure this potential is not lost as a result of the recession.
* Jackie Brierton is director of the Young People’s Enterprise Centre Of Expertise
