Conservative Party Conference: 'Train youth workers to support young entrepreneurs'

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Jon Boagey said youth workers are best placed to support disengaged young people to develop their own social enterprises but they are not always equipped with the skills to do so.
 
He said: “We think youth workers need better training to think about how they can support young people to be more entrepreneurial.
 
“What we’re interested in doing is bringing the connection between youth work and the personal and social skills to that sector.”
 
Boagey said the need has been highlighted by NYA’s commission into enterprise and young people, the interim findings of which have found a gap in the business support available to young people.
 
He added: “There are young people who said they had very little support at school or elsewhere, and if there was support at school it was very much focused on the technical support.
 
“There’s lots of evidence about building character, resilience, improving the emotional immune system so when people struggle, when something fails, how capable are they to pick up and keep going and how are we able to support them?
 
“We think youth workers are particularly well-placed to support those who are disengaged.”
 
Norwich North MP Chloe Smith, chair of the commission, echoed Boagey’s comments.
 
She said: “This is a great opportunity to enable youth workers to do something new. It’s something they don’t necessarily see that they can and should do, and that is easy to do in partnership.”
 
Councillor David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, also supports the idea but thinks a coherent national strategy needs to be developed in order for it to be successful.
 
He said: “One of the criticisms that comes back from young people is how fragmented careers advice is – the system is completely different in Cornwall than, for example, Teeside.
 
“That’s not new but, nonetheless, we need to have a coherent national strategy around that [supporting young people to develop social enterprises] and for the youth work profession to develop into that role would be fantastic.
 
“One of the things we need to think about at a national level is how we make that coherent so we don’t get young people falling at the first hurdle because a youth worker can provide them with advice in Hillingdon but they live in Harrow so can’t access it.”
 
The commission, which was launched in April, is due to publish its report in November.