The employment of young people
There is currently a lot of publicity about the million young people who are out of work and lots of talk about increasing apprenticeships. There is also a suggestion that university degrees are expensive and don’t result in employment for the students. However, there is one simple, productive and affordable solution which nobody has talked about. The government should spend a lot more on funding new enterprise.
I recently submitted my plans for cheap housing without using any new land to an innovation competition where £5 million was on offer in loans to start-up businesses. In the event, my proposals were rejected. In fact, of the eleven hundred applicants, only twenty-six proposals were offered funding, which is an average of less than two hundred thousand pounds per company. Meanwhile, well over a thousand sets of proposals were rejected.
The point is, that it is clear the demand is there, if the funds are made available. £5 million is the merest flea-bite to a government that spends well over a trillion a year on energy, transport, welfare and other essentials. If one billion was committed to new enterprises in the first year (still only a tenth of one per cent of total expenditure) it could result in twenty-six thousand new companies being set up. Universities should allocate a part of their courses to learning about business and preparing students to apply for these funding offers. Of course, some of these companies would fail, possibly losing the exchequer millions, but many more would succeed.
The result would be a boost to employment, mainly of younger people, and especially clever young brains. The country would be given a multitude of new industries, helping to grow the national wealth and improve the balance of payments. And the exchequer would benefit from
the share of profits in the successful new enterprises, to say nothing of the improved taxation which would result.
If you wish to get in touch with me about any of the matters I raise in my blogs, you can contact me through my website or at mike@mikehillier.co.uk.
Mike.
