‘As a society, we must believe in young people, because they are our future...’

UNEMPLOYMENT is incredibly tough for almost everyone. Loss of a job can mean a dramatic change in lifestyle and dip in self-esteem. Uncertainty about whether you will work again and when, the pressure of failing to support yourself and maybe a family, possibly losing your home and perhaps becoming ill or losing previously relationships due to stress are sadly becoming everyday stories.

For young people who have yet to get a foot on the employment ladder or those who have barely started their working life and haven’t yet learned useful skills when they find themselves in the dole queue, there exist a peculiar set of circumstances. They don’t yet have the skills, experience and confidence to offer prospective employers, and as months go by new waves of school and college leavers are queueing up behind them for a dwindling supply of work.

The idea of a job for life is long gone, but even the hope of a short-to-medium term job seems depressingly beyond expectation right now.

Almost three-quarters of young people in Yorkshire and the Humber claim life is harder than ever for unemployed people in their age group, according to a new report by the Prince’s Trust and Royal Bank of Scotland. Almost half think finding a job is harder than this time last year, while many of those who are working feel they are ‘disposable’.

The research, based on interviews with 2,000 16 to 30- year-olds, reveals that one in five jobless young people think finding a job in the next year is unachievable, while more than a third claim they have not received one reply to their job applications in the last 12 months.

The Prince’s Trust, a charity that gives practical and financial support and helps disadvantaged young people to develop workplace skills, believes that a good route out of the dole queue to a steady income and success is self-employment.

The PT/RBS report also questioned self-employed young people and almost half said starting their own business was the best thing they’d ever done, while just over half said they would recommend that others follow suit. More than 10 per cent had been motivated to set up in business because they could not find a job.

The trust is celebrating young people from across the UK who have, with its help, taken the plunge and become self-employed.

The PT/RBS partnership is publishing an A-Z of Young Businesses, showcasing 26 of the young people who have been supported into business by the scheme and have become role models showing others that it’s possible to buck the trend of long-term unemployment. Three of the young Yorkshire entrepreneurs in the A-Z are Arfan Naseer or “Naz” and “Dynamo”, both from Bradford, and Veronica Noonan, from Wakefield.

At the age of 17 Veronica found herself homeless while in the middle of a two-year art course. She was forced to live in homeless ‘hotels’, and with no money for bus fares she walked for two hours a day to get to and from college – managing to get her qualification with top grades. Having no money made her more determined to be a success somehow, and she trained as a plumber. Gaining work experience was difficult, and she grafted unpaid for plumbing companies around Wakefield while working in a card factory to pay the bills.

Made redundant by the factory, she did voluntary plumbing for the council for a while, then got a steady work placement for a time, but found herself unemployed once more. At this point she heard about the Prince’s Trust, which gives support and funding to young people setting up businesses. With the help of a PT mentor she put together a business plan, and in January 2011 set up her all-female plumbing business, now called Sugar-Plumb Solutions. Finally she had a steady income.

Veronica, who’s now 24, says: “It was a real struggle at times just to get by, and sometimes it would really get me down. The Prince’s Trust has given me the chance to do the job I’ve always wanted, and the advice and confidence to run my own business. I can’t thank them enough – it has really turned my life around.”

As a boy whose father died when he was five and who was raised by his single parent mother, Naz’s life looked to be set on a downward spiral when, in his early teens, he got involved with a bad crowd and ended up in prison at 21, for a nine-year sentence on a drug-related offence. “While I was in prison I quickly faced up to my past, the mistakes I’d made, and the consequences of my actions for myself and for my mother. I started to think about how I could change my life for the better.”

Naz initially got involved in the Prince’s Trust’s work in prison, and on his release he worked for the trust for two years, visiting schools and educating youngsters about the realities of life in prison. He then joined a team supporting and training young people to become youth workers.

Since then he has gone on to set up Consequence, his own enterprise which works with local authorities and the police in helping young people who are at risk of offending.

“I’m always on hand to help if they are in trouble, no matter what time of day,” says Naz. “I currently employ five outreach workers who are all ex-offenders so they can give the best possible advice. So far we have helped youngsters in Bradford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Middlesbrough and Dewsbury, and it’s continuing to grow.”

Naz’s business is based on determination to make a real difference to the lives of other young people in difficult situations.

“Without the Prince’s Trust I don’t know where I would be today. Many of the young people I work with don’t have positive role models in their lives. I try to help them see an alternative path by learning from my mistakes.”

‘Dynamo’ (Steven Frayne) is 29 and a successful magician of world renown, who learned many of his tricks at the knee of his grandfather when he was a small boy. Growing up on Bradford’s Delph Hill Estate, life was tough. As a small-sized boy he was bullied at school, at 13 he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and his father was rarely around because he spent a lot of time in prison. Dynamo’s grandfather taught him more magic tricks, and over time these impressed enough people to earn him respect at school and earn him paying gigs – including a spot at a conference to mark the 100th anniversary of escapologist Harry Houdini’s death. This big break was followed by months of illness, though, and the young man became very despondent that he would never make his mark.

“I was at a low point in life – but that’s when the Prince’s Trust helped me to turn things around,” says Dynamo. “I applied for a £2,000 loan and made a DVD to show off my talents, The belief they showed in me really gave me the self-confidence that I could achieve my dream and from that moment on my life changed completely.”

Since setting up his business, he has performed at functions in front of global stars like Rihanna, Will Smith and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. “There are lots of people out there in tough situations. There were drugs, burnt-out cars and fights where I lived, but if I made it out of the estate anyone can.”

Andrew Farley, head of fund-raising for the Prince’s Trust in Yorkshire and the Humber, says: “As a society we have to believe in young people, because they are our future, The economic climate is terrible for many people but in the young it presents many challenges including the risk of going down the wrong path and of many spending years living on benefits as well as suffering long-term disillusionment that life will ever be better.

“We work to show people from disadvantaged backgrounds that they can create their own jobs, and that this helps to create a ripple effect which helps other people too.”

The Prince’s Trust A-Z of Young Businesses is being updated and released daily. Visit facebook.com/princestrust or go to princes-trust.org.uk

From dole to employment

THE Prince’s Trust is a charity that gives practical and financial support, developing key workplace skills such as confidence and motivation. It works with 13 to 30-year-olds who have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law.

The Trust has helped more than 600,000 young people since 1976 and supports 100 more each working day. More than three in four young people it helped last year moved into work, education or training.

Around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. Youth unemployment costs the UK economy £10m a day in lost productivity, while youth crime costs £1bn a year.