Self-employment pathway – intervention model

Overview

This document provides an overview of a proposed self-employment support model aimed at helping NEET young people in the UK into earning and learning.

It outlines the key components of an ideal support journey, integrating best practice elements from existing programmes including those in the literature to provide a comprehensive support pathway. Where relevant, it distinguishes between the routes and different types of support that young people may require at different stages of their journey.

The intervention caters to a diverse group of young people who may have differing needs depending on their context, the sector of interest to them, and the maturity stage of their self-employment journey, so prioritises flexible and adaptable approaches.

Programme components include:

• awareness-raising
• screening
• learning and training
• business advice and mentoring
• group work and peer support
• access to finance
• post-programme support

The pathway outlined focuses on programme delivery, and does not include the development of programme infrastructure.

The intervention at this stage does not include a component of direct finance to young people to inject into business start-up. This is because providers indicated not all young people need it and it can create risks for young people to receive financing too soon. Providers also noted the availability of business financing options from other sources.

Background

This document was developed as part of a research project, funded by Youth Futures Foundation and delivered in collaboration with the Institute for Employment Studies and University of Westminster, that sought to explore whether self-employment has the potential to provide opportunities to young people who are NEET.

The outline design was informed by insights from individual self-employment support providers shared via consultation. It is also underpinned by evidence from a literature review and secondary data analysis.

The engagement with providers focused on how a self-employment support intervention could be best configured and delivered, to support the development of an intervention blueprint, which would be included in a draft trial protocol.

The conversations covered the timing and nature of support, with emphasis on format, content, and cost to understand how the support intervention would need to be delivered in practice. Providers shared insight based on the self-employment support interventions which they deliver in their organisations.

The organisations which took part in the consultations included: The Prince’s Trust, TEDCO Business Support, Momentic, RIFT Social Enterprise, Apex Project, Ingenuity, Launch It.