The peak age for people to start a business in the UK is traditionally in the early 30′s but this may be about to change as a new generation of entrepreneur support organisations led by young, dedicated and gifted leaders have recently sprung up to champion entrepreneurship amongst students and the recently graduated. Organisations such as National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs-NACUE set-up and very ably run by Victoria Lennox and Matt Smith and the soon to be launched Enternships led by Rajeeb Dey.
Not to miss a trick, Capital Enterprise has signed both organisations up as members and invited both of them to the Autumn get together last Friday at the British Library. Matt Smith of NACUE gave a presentation, that if feedback forms are anything to go by, went down a storm with members. NACUE is looking to form new enterprise societies with Capital Enterprise University members such as University of the Arts London.
NACUE also organises events and workshops that inspire, educate and develop young entrepreneurs and business ventures amongst students and graduates. I am hoping in the next few weeks to work with interested members to get us collectively to put together a package of support services and special offers which we can ask NACUE to promote to young entrepreneurs in London. I am also hoping to work with NACUE to set-up a peer-to-peer network group in London for those who have recently graduated.
Enternships is a portal which connects students, graduates and budding entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial work placements in start-ups. Presently it is at Beta testing stage when for the last few months it has managed to get over 700 businesses to place internship offers to the 1000’s of graduates who have registered on the site. Enternships official launch is on the evening of the 17th of November at the plush west end venue Floridita . Rajeeb has kindly given me 20 free tickets to our more young at heart Capital Enterprise members. If you are interested let me know.
I am keen to see how Capital Enterprise members can work together with Enternships and other internship programmes. To get the ball rolling we have been asked to place 4 highly qualified graduates with member organisations who are looking to launch or get off the ground new projects or initiatives. If you are interested please let me know. These graduates are paid by the LDA funded London Placement programme run by Mathew Connelley of the London Met University and members would be expected to pay a small contribution to the intern’s salary.
In regards to activity around graduate enterprise and graduate unemployment this is just the tip of the iceberg. Capital Enterprise has helped the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship join with our University members to stage 8 large one-day graduate entrepreneurship rallies in London in next few months. To find out more about these events please check out www.flyingstartonline.com
Why this increasing interest in graduate enterprise and graduate internship? The reason is simple -the massive rise of unemployment amongst 18-24 years old and the fact that JCP are reporting that around 30% of those eligible for the Future Job Fund salary subsidy have in there words “BA Hons Qualifications”. A sorry fact borne up by our member Prevista who are now heavily involved in matching the long term unemployed into jobs subsidized by the Future Job Fund. This leads me to the final point of this very long blog. Is your organization interested in working with Capital Enterprise to put together a Future Job Fund bid into the DWP. If so let me know.
