Young people need a range of social and financial opportunities to succeed

When we relaunched our vInspired Cashpoint programme (which offers small grants to budding social entrepreneurs) a couple of months ago, it was with a couple of clear goals:

1) give young people the tools to develop those social action ideas they had been simmering away, but hadn’t had the funds or confidence to develop

2) inspire young people who had never even dreamed that social entrepreneurship would be for them, and show them that they could be the agents of the change they wanted to see in the world

The scheme has done just that in previous years, providing both spark and fuel to the entrepreneurial ambitions of 800 young people. And with youth unemployment creeping up every month, for us, it seems now is the perfect time to encourage young people to take their futures into their own hands.

So it was a surprise to see some of the criticism being levelled at the government’s new start-up loan programme, which launched yesterday.

Is sheer motivation enough?

One of the key arguments mentioned in this Guardian comment piece yesterday was that true entrepreneurs are not motivated by money, but by personal passion.

According to the writer, this fund cannot make a real difference because true entrepreneurs - those with inherent resilience and drive - will find their way without it. But surely motivation alone is not enough?

For some young people, no matter how much drive they have, the necessary funding is simply not there. And if it is, it comes with huge risks. Not to mention the fact that some young people simply don’t have the confidence, for whatever reason, to make their ideas a reality. I cannot believe that many of these young people, with the right support and encouragement, could not make as effective entrepreneurs as those confident enough to plough their way through unaided.

Enabling young people with the right skills

A second argument suggested that young people simply don’t have the right skills and experience to be good entrepreneurs. This may be true, but how do we expect them to build these skills if we don’t give them a chance?

Our vInspired Cashpoint exists to give young people exactly the type of business management skills that young people, through age alone, lack. What we do, however, is minimise the risk to the young person as they build those skills and offer them a support structure that builds their confidence as they learn. These new start-up loans will also come with mentoring support for those who need it.

This is not a time for semantic arguments, rather a time for increased options. I and others have helped young people start businesses with small loans for many years, and many have sustained into big business offering employment to others. This would not have happened without the kick-start of loan finance coupled with mentoring. The money has to come from somewhere.

While it is true that funding is not the only solution to young people’s employment problems, our experience shows that opportunities count – opportunities to think in new ways about what they can achieve, and our belief that they can reach their potential.