Enterprising youngsters can help cut rising unemployment in North Staffordshire

Getting more young people involved in enterprise could help North Staffordshire combat an alarming rise in youth unemployment.

The rallying cry was made by the ‘Think Enterprise’ roadshow after it visited Staffordshire University’s Leek Road campus on Monday, when it hosted a day of activities, including a round table discussion on young people’s enterprise, a series of workshops for more than 30 pupils from two local schools and an open session for potential entrepreneurs.

According to the Young People’s Enterprise Centre of Expertise (YPECOE), it is absolutely vital that more is done to promote the ‘enterprise’ agenda with young people and to ensure they have the relevant support they need to turn ideas into new businesses.

Jackie Brierton, Director of YPECOE, believes that the recession has hit 16-24 year-olds in Stoke-on-Trent especially hard, with the rate of Job Seeker Allowance claimants in the City rocketing to 11.5% - a 4.1% increase on the same time last year.

Despite these gloomy statistics, recent research shows that the entrepreneurial age profile of North Staffs and the West Midlands is younger than most other regions, with 5.4% engaged in early stage activity (compared to a UK average of just 4.1%).

Furthermore, 22% of young people questioned say they are likely to start up their own business or become self-employed within the next five years.

“There is real potential for young entrepreneurs to have a major role in pulling Stoke-on-Trent out of the recession, both in the short and long term,” explained Jackie, who developed the roadshow with BES’ Ian Carlier.

“However, we have got to make sure they are offered business support that suits their requirements, have access to funding that works for their ideas and that we focus on enterprise education at the earliest possible opportunity.”

She continued: “All of these issues and more were discussed during the round table discussion, which involved a number of key local stakeholders, business support bodies and young entrepreneurs.

“This was a ‘warts and all’ approach and the idea is to use the anecdotal information and experiences shared to influence future enterprise policy for the region.”

The Roadshow takes place on a special enterprise bus that is planning to visit a further five areas of the West Midlands between now and March.

In addition to the policy discussion, there was also be the opportunity for budding entrepreneurs to drop in and receive one-one-to guidance from a number of enterprise coaches and a creative workshop with 30 pupils from Mitchell High School and Sandon High School.

“We are already working on a number of new initiatives designed to provide more tailored support, including an online platform for young people to access enterprise information and advice and the launch of the UK’s first ever Young People’s Enterprise Partnership,” added Jackie.

She concluded: “The latter will give organisations, such as AWM and Business Link, direct access to the views and ideas of young people and will ultimately help to shape future strategy and enterprise policy.”

YPECOE is one of four Centres of Expertise funded by the Advantage West Midlands Enterprise Board, with the others targeting Minority Ethnic, Social Enterprise and Women.