Young People Mean Business
Young people in the Wealden and Rother area are being given the opportunity to set themselves up in business thanks to funding from the LEADER+ programme.
The project aims to make services offered by the Princes Trust more accessible to those living in rural areas. It aims to achieve this by setting up an Outreach Network using local community, voluntary and statutory organisations who have access to the target group of disadvantaged young people. It is developing opportunities for self-employment using rural skills and products.
There are two main programmes that the project intends to make more widely accessible. The first of these, the Business Programme, gives disadvantaged young people the opportunity to move into self-employment. The programme provides soft loans, grants to the particularly disadvantaged, and aftercare support to help young people who have a good business idea and have been refused all other forms of finance. It also provides test-marketing grants (TMGs) to young people to test their business ideas. It seeks to engage those young people who through their circumstances, lack of experience or qualifications have been excluded from the mainstream employment market. For many, self-employment is the only viable employment option open for them.
In the first year activity mainly involved research and development, however the project is seeking to cultivate this further in the subsequent years by proactively using the links created to support business start-ups. Central to this project is the promotion of rural themes and businesses and it is the stated aim of the project to encourage business start-ups in these fields. This will necessitate stronger links with organisations focussed on rural issues and skills.
Whilst the project’s primary objective is to target young people for business start-up, the Trust runs a number of other programmes which target the same groups with the aim of developing confidence and skills, providing opportunities to young people and reducing social exclusion. It is the Trust’s stated aim to target those young people who are in pockets of rural deprivation with the objective of making all the opportunities that the Trust has to offer as accessible to them as to their urban counterparts. The secondary objective of the project, therefore, would be to use the outreach links developed to extend the reach of the programmes offered by the Trust, particularly the Team Programme and the xl network to young people in the WARR Partnership area.
The Team Programme is a 12-week personal development programme for 16-25 year olds which seeks to increase skills, confidence and motivation through a series of team and individual challenges in the community. It aims to increase employability amongst young people who are in some way disadvantaged. It is also estimated that each Team Programme contributes £7000 worth of benefit to the community. Currently the programme is run from bases in Hastings and Eastbourne and it would be the intention of the Trust to increase participation in this programme for young people within the WARR Partnership area.
The xl network programme is a preventative, in-school, personal development programme for 14-16 year olds which attempts to support young people through the last two years of their compulsory education. It also aims to increase motivation, improve attitudes and attendance, raise self-esteem, and promote inclusion and is aimed at those 14-16 year olds who are at risk of underachievement and/or exclusion from school. If the outreach work that is carried out under this project identifies that there is a need for this type of programme in the WARR Partnership area, they would seek to establish two xl clubs in the area in each of the fourth and fifth years of the project.
Example of beneficiaries
Simon Masters, 27 y/old, was awarded a test marketing grant £250 in May 2004 to carry out marketing research. In June 2004 he was awarded a start-up loan of £5,000. Simon lives in and will run his company from Icklesham. Simon is setting up a small plants hire company with two machines and himself as an operator. He has recently been discharged from the army for personal reasons and is now focused on getting his business up and running. He has done a lot of work with the local fisheries and due to new laws for disability access it looks like he will be the recommended contractor to carry out the work.
Kevin Bedford was awarded a £2,000 start up loan and a £1,000 start-up grant in December 04 quarter to help finance the establishment of a specialist tyre fitting service in Sedlescombe, following the award of a test marketing grant late in September 04 quarter. The test marketing grant was used to help Kevin secure trading premises and have some flyers/business cards printed and has enabled him to come off Disability Living Allowance. The business started operating in the first week of January when all the necessary equipment had been purchased and installed.
Page last modified:
6 December, 2006
Page created: 12 April, 2005