Empowering the future

Youth Business International is delighted to partner with The Entrepreneurs Network on a joint project ‘Empowering the Future’.

Before the end of 2024, the British government will call a general election. Recent years have been a period of unprecedented struggle, rising inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and businesses and the population are still reeling from the effects of the Covid pandemic. A post-general election government has an opportunity to prioritise youth entrepreneurship as a tool to help transform Britain and empower the future.

YBI believes that increasing the support and opportunity for young entrepreneurs can have a transformative effect, not just on young business owners, but on the population as a whole. When youth-led businesses thrive, they create new jobs, shape local communities, and drive economic growth.

YBI and The Entrepreneurs Network are working with leading entrepreneurship experts, academics, charities and bodies to map the challenges and opportunities and present our recommendations to government. We will be launching our joint policy paper on June 20, 2024, at an event in the Houses of Parliament.

On May 1, we convened leading experts at a round table to discuss what is needed to ensure the next generation has the entrepreneurial skills to succeed.

The lively debate revolved around entrepreneurship education, funding models, barriers to entrepreneurship and ways to enhance government and private support for young entrepreneurs. Insights from today’s roundtable will feed into the paper on what policies a post-general election government needs to harness young entrepreneurs.

We are thankful to the organisations who joined us for this important discussion: Enterprise Nation, Girls in Charge, Enactus UK & Ireland, Centre for Entrepreneurs, Ultra Education, Proprep, Global Entrepreneurship Network, The Prince’s Trust, Hatch Enterprise, Launch It, Young Enterprise, ABE UK, University of Bristol, IOE – UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, Connectr, Mission Ventures, ncee, Enterprise Educators UK, finnCap Cavendish, UniTaskr, EIS Teacher Association, Wealth Club, Skills Builder Partnership, and Oxentia.