An initiative providing business support for young people has been launched, with a new webinar series and grants for promising startups.
KTN, an innovation network, has joined Innovate UK and The Prince’s Trust to launch the #IdeasMeanBusiness initiative, aimed at helping 18 to 30-year-olds transform their diverse ideas into successful businesses.
Research from Innovate UK showed that half of young people in the UK think their age is a barrier to business success with nearly a third lacking the confidence they need to turn their idea into reality.
Age shouldn’t be a barrier
“There are many barriers when setting up a business,” says Siwan Smith, lead for Diversity and Inclusion Programmes at KTN.
“We need to ensure that age is not one of them. We are proud to connect young people, harnessing their creativity and passion and giving them confidence and the tools to create innovative solutions that tackle societal challenges.
“The #IdeasMeanBusiness webinar series is a creative way of allowing more young people to gain the advice and expertise needed to start a business and help them make connections from home whilst maintaining social distancing.”
Business support for young people
The programme aims to help young people to create more diverse ideas and businesses to strengthen and rebuild the UK economy. Designed by KTN, the series brings together expert knowledge from leading start-up accelerators and business support organisations such as; Foundervine, UK Black Tech, Ultra Education, Career Ear and EEN.
The webinar series forms part of Innovate UK’s £2.2m Young Innovators Programme in partnership with The Prince’s Trust.
Grants for young innovators
The national Young Innovators Awards will go to 18 to 30 year olds with a creative and ground-breaking business idea to support them in turning it into reality.
The awards will support up to 100 young people over three years with individuals benefiting from a £5,000 grant, one-to-one coaching and an allowance to cover living costs. Applications to the awards are currently open, with the closing date September 2 at 11am. Apply here.
The #IdeasMeanBusiness webinar series is free to attend and runs between August and December 2020.