Young jobless in Shropshire get helping hand
Shropshire’s “young jobless” generation is being targeted in a new industrial revolution that also offers a lifeline to county firms.
The Young Britain campaign has been launched at Telford Enterprise Hub to help new young entrepreneurs on the path to set up their own “fledgling” start up businesses.
Organisers are also on the lookout for lone home workers and established small firms to become part of the Hub - due to open in May – aimed at breathing new life into the county’s economy.
Telford Enterprise Hub has been described as “the finest workspace” in the region and includes the Young Britain start up zone at its heart. The project is an innovative Shropshire Enterprise Partnership regeneration scheme backed by one of the county’s most successful firms.
Husband and wife entrepreneurs Graham and Jenny Wynn, who have excelled in business with the TTC Group, a national specialist driver training organisation, have committed £250,000 to the entrepreneurial scheme.
The philanthropic couple want to use their success to help others and are donating a brand new building to provide rent-free, fully fitted workspace for local16 to 24-year-olds at their 6,000 sq foot Hadley Park East HQ in Telford.
Graham Wynn, chairman of the TTC Group, said: “The self employed young people of today, given the right support, will become the employers of tomorrow.”
Shropshire Enterprise Partnership Projects Director Fay Easton said that Telford Enterprise Hub would be the UK’s first start up zone where the brightest young business people will get the “finest working, meeting and thinking space” in the region – working alongside existing firms.
“Young people who feel they are part of a “jobless generation” and have watched their peers leaving school and college, many still with no work in sight, are disheartened and despondent. We now want to encourage them to consider starting their own business as the answer to youth unemployment. Making your own job is definitely the way forward in this strained traditional jobs market,” she said.
Young fledgling entrepreneurs will be part of a “collaborative community” with weekly training and mentoring, a web presence, designed logos, business cards, advertising, sales and marketing, coaching opportunities and IT support.
Telford Enterprise Hub, supported by Telford and Wrekin Council, has individual work pod spaces for brand new start ups and also provides established entrepreneurs with an affordable alternative to lonely home working. The Hub can accommodate up to 100 separate businesses at individual workstations and in self contained offices and services include high speed broadband, print and copy facilities, registered business addresses, virtual business services, call minding and an in house Enterprise Lounge with fresh coffee and daily baking.
A “myriad” of inter-trading opportunities will come from the mixture of firms on site where businesses will be supported with a central reception desk, meeting rooms and business community networking events.
Fay Easton said: “This is a landmark regeneration project. Telford Enterprise Hub will put young entrepreneurs at the heart of a productive workplace and provide affordable contemporary workspace for firms downsizing for home-based enterprises on the path to growth as they move on from the constraints of the home office.
“This isn’t just serviced office space with a smart façade and a grey box for rent. This is an economic development project to create productive hub working in an area where ideas and individuals profit and flourish. It’s all about collaboration and entrepreneurial growth and fostering the next industrial revolution here in Telford - where the first industrial revolution was created.”
Telford Enterprise Hub is on the site of the former Hadley Park Farm, located in a two storey modern office next door to The TTC Group. The neighbouring not for profit TTC 2000 (part of the TTC Group) operates speed awareness courses, driver training for motorists who commit minor traffic offences and a rehabilitation course for drink drivers. Their aim is to reduce deaths and injuries on the road by educating drivers.
Graham Wynn added: “Our business has been very successful since we started in Telford in 1993. We moved onto the Hadley Park site in 2006 when the Princess Royal opened our brand new office. But we found that we outgrew the premises very quickly and so we built two new offices on the site.”
“Jenny and I have always wanted to give something back to the area and we now have the extra office space to do that, along with the will to help bring business success to others. ‘Young Britain’ is a cause close to our hearts and something that we have always wanted to support,” said Graham, who received the OBE for services to road safety.
Prospective firms interested in locating at Telford Enterprise Hub and young people, aged 16-24, with a business idea should contact Fay on info@shropshireenterprise.co.uk or call 01952 580745.
