No job? Why not create your own?

No job? Why not create your own?

£1,500 fund gives young entrepreneurs a chance to start

Around 1.1 million young people are looking for work or missing out on education and training opportunities. Government is rightly concerned, businesses are being encouraged to recruit and Heathrow has pledged 5,000 apprenticeships and training opportunities as part of its third-runway plans. But there's another route we don't talk about nearly enough: instead of waiting for somebody to give a young person a job, why not help them create their own?

KICKSTART YOUR BUSINESS CAREER

The Government is, rightly, very concerned about getting young people into work. Around 1.1 million are looking for employment or education and training opportunities. Heathrow has just pledged to create 5,000 apprenticeships and training opportunities for young people as part of plans to build a third runway. That’s a big commitment but organisations of any size can play a role, and many are working on this alone, together, in theory or even in practice. Others are addressing the problem by helping young people start their own businesses.  

The Enterprise Nation Fund: Next Generation, has just been launched (16th Sept) and is offering one 18-to-24-year-old £1,500 and six hours of mentoring. No business plan is needed, just an idea. Applications are open and close on 12th October.

The Enterprise Nation Fund: Next Generation comes as concern mounts over the record number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are neither working nor studying. 

One winner aged 18 to 24 will receive a £1,500 grant along with six hours of mentoring from an experienced entrepreneur. You don’t need to have a business already; an idea is enough to enter. Apply for the Next Generation fund now! 

Enterprise Nation CEO Aaron Asadi said the organisation came across "thousands" of young people each year with strong business ideas but no clear route to acting on them. 

He explained: "The Next Generation fund is about removing that first barrier, giving one young person the money and the mentoring to take their idea seriously.

"With youth unemployment numbers stubbornly high, we think entrepreneurship deserves to be talked about as part of the solution, not an afterthought. You don't need a finished business plan to enter; you just need an idea and the drive to run with it." 

Take Archie

Archie Shepperd, 21, left school at 16 unaware that the facilities management industry even existed. At 20, he founded his own company, Urban Standard. 

Six months on, the business employs 12 people and holds contracts across 500 properties in the health and social care sector, from care homes to clinics treating brain injuries and addiction. It became self-funding within two months of launch. 

Archie argued that the barriers facing young entrepreneurs are as much about education and visibility as money.

He described the school business curriculum as "quite outdated" and warned that many young people are left "vulnerable to people on Instagram saying you can make a Shopify shop and earn all this money when 99% aren't going to be able to do that." 

His advice to would-be entrepreneurs is not to wait for a groundbreaking idea. 

"If you have a simple idea and you do it really well, your business will be profitable," he said, adding that self-belief mattered more than experience.

"You don't 100% need to have had loads of experience." 

Who can apply? 

The fund is open to anyone aged 18 to 24. You don't need a registered business, a business plan or trading history, just an idea and the drive to develop it. 

Key dates 

• Grant opens: 16 September 

• Grant closes: 12 October, 23:59 

• Applicants contacted: 15 October 

• Winner announced: 19 October