|
 Setting the Scene The economic and social landscape of the UK has changed dramatically during the early years of the 21st century, and nowhere more so than in the lives of young people. Many challenges are faced by young people in developing their skills and experience, in order to find or create a place for themselves in this ever-changing environment. Young people, especially those who are disadvantaged educationally, socio-economically, geographically or culturally need support in many ways and in many different specialist areas; but as well as expertise and training they need the awareness and opportunity to discover for themselves their own potential. The need for support and an opportunity for development in the lives of young people has long been recognised by the team at Wandsworth Youth Enterprise (WYE) and other enterprise agencies across the country. WYE have been delivering tailored support to young people through a wholly integrated youth enterprise programme since 1988, which currently includes the provision of over 120 incubation and business units. Since 1996 WYE has applied its wealth of experience to support other organisations in developing new youth enterprise centres with programmes designed specifically to meet the needs of the local young people. Following the success of this model, which has been replicated in Central Europe as well as in the UK, WYE obtained funding from The Big Lottery Fund to further build the capacity of four main partners in the UK, including WYE, to develop their youth support activities through the youngbusiness.net UK project. These UK partners, WYE, London Youth Support Trust (LYST), Highland Opportunity Ltd (HOL) and Community Roots Enterprise Centre (CREC), all work to a similar ethos; focusing on both the entrepreneur’s personal and business development. The partners are dedicated to encouraging local regeneration by increasing self-employment opportunities and fostering the local enterprise culture. Two current government policy priorities, ‘Developing an Enterprising Britain’ and ‘Engaging with Disadvantaged Youth’, have intensified the focus on youth enterprise, creating a climate in which the youngbusiness.net UK partnership can successfully develop joint bids, share best practice, advance the policy agenda and source additional training and skills. Furthermore, as lead partner, WYE has been able to offer support in Outreach and Community Development, Enterprise Programme Creation, Sustainability Planning, Business Counselling Training and Financial Expertise amongst many other support activities, in order to build the capacity of the less experienced partners in the network.
|
 |
||||||||||||||
