With the publication of the Government’s latest strategy ‘Building a Society for All Ages’, PRIME (the Prince’s Initiative for the Mature Entrepreneur) has been acknowledged as being at the forefront of activities to encourage more people over 50 to consider working for themselves.
PRIME was established with the mission to ensure everyone aged over 50 has the opportunity for financial, social and personal fulfilment through sustainable self-employment, business or social enterprise.
PRIME has recently developed a number of new services for clients and partners alike:
• A new, innovative loan scheme together with Zopa Ltd and the
charitable arm of Bank of America. It does have funds to lend despite
the credit crunch - but the application process is highly competitive.
The scheme is not for everyone, but only those with a strong viable
business proposition. The first PRIME client to take advantage of the
loan, was Cecile Trijssenaar, who used it to set up her business
‘TopMatch West London’.
• A comprehensive workshop for all advisors dealing with clients over
50, to ensure that they understand the option of working for yourself,
in order to approach it with more confidence with their clients. It is
hoped that this will be available online in the near future.
• A Mentoring scheme, to provide trained individuals from the public and
private sector, to support the personal development of our over 50s
clients, whilst pursuing their business idea. This will be available in
Bristol, Belfast and Newcastle, in the first instance.
• A series of support workshops under Flexible New Deal, for those who are unemployed and wishing to start their own business.
As well as all these exciting developments, PRIME will be taking forward the Age Strategy self-employment element, working with partners across the UK.
And finally, a recent policy workshop, attended by forty people drawn from civil servants and government agency staff (from BIS, DWP, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), business support organisations and industry met together to look at harnessing the enterprise, experience and skills of the 50+ to the labour market. The outcome will be a 50+ Enterprise Manifesto, which we will feature in future editions.
To learn more about PRIME visit: www.primeinitiative.org.uk