YouthStart makes young people entrepreneurs of their own lives

YouthStart helps young people realise their professional dreams. The non-profit association activates unemployed young people who do not go to school and do not have a diploma or, at the most, a certificate of secondary education. Last year, 1,000 participants rediscovered their ambitions through YouthStart training. “In 2022, we want to support 1,200 young people. Donations from the business world are vital,” says CEO Bart De Bondt. Gumption has been supporting YouthStart since 2019.

Entrepreneurship isat the centre of YouthStart. How did that idea come about?

Bart De Bondt: “Thirty-four years ago, American businessman Steve Mariotti was robbed by street youths in the Bronx. Instead of condemning them, Steve wanted to know what drove them. He discovered how these school dropouts survived through illegal trading. They had their entrepreneurial spirit in common. According to Steve, entrepreneurship could set the youngsters on the right path. He founded the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Ten years later, the idea crossed the ocean with Gaëtan Hannecart of Matexi, who discovered the NFTE through Harvard Business School. This is how YouthStart was born.”

Do you prepare young people to become entrepreneurs?

“Not necessarily. We help them become entrepreneurs of their own lives. Our training seeks to give young people renewed confidence in themselves and their abilities. We make them reconsider their ambitions and dreams. When you grow up in a difficult context, you soon put those aside. After the training, 2% of the participants feel ready to start a business immediately, 48% go back to school and 23% find a job. After five years, 10% of our participants have founded a company.”

All in all, three out of four young people find a new goal in life after the YouthStart training. Can you explain the high success rate?

“Studies have shown that the idea of entrepreneurship attracts low-skilled young people. It allows them to take control of their chances without qualifications or experience. Our participants draw up a business plan with us and present it to a jury. At the end, they receive a YouthStart certificate, powered by Antwerp Management School and HTC Liège. We train computer skills and other hard skills, but also soft skills and attitude. They learn, for example, that punctuality is important, that showing up an hour late is not acceptable. By putting themselves in the shoes of an entrepreneur, this understanding begins to take shape.”

Which students will you never forget?

“The Iranian pharmacist immediately comes to mind. In Belgium, she had to start her studies again from scratch. Our training helped her find the courage. Or the girl from Somalia, who found the courage to take off her headscarf for the first time during the presentation. In her business plan, she described how she wanted to earn money as a model. With this money, she planned to set up a company to support oppressed women in her homeland. Half the participants are Belgians with a background of migration. Refugees who know Dutch or French well are also welcome.”

What impact did the coronavirus have on your operation?

“Many young people discover us through social organisations, from the VDAB to the boxing club. These activities came to a standstill and our intake through these channels stagnated or decreased. Doing nothing wasn’t an option. Because it was our target group above all that was hit hardest by the economic and psychological consequences of the coronavirus. We were forced to rely on online advertising, street ads and media partnerships. Metro published articles, our message appeared on Facebook and Google, on metro panels and in stations. This turned out an unexpected success. We helped more young people than ever in the past year.”

“The coronavirus forced us to rethink our business model. That turned out to be a good thing. The newspapers of Mediahuis and Mediafin now support us and publish our adverts. In this way, young people sometimes get to know us through family or acquaintances.”

“We gave several training sessions digitally but being together physically is irreplaceable. The interaction and dynamics of live training are too important. Often our young people don’t have a computer or Wi-Fi, or any way to follow the training online.”

What are your ambitions?

“We would like to be able to help 1,200 young people in 2022, 200 more than today. We are inundated with applications. But we just haven’t got the funds to say yes to them all. My dream is public-private funding. As an unsubsidised non-profit, we are an anomaly in Belgium. We have been active for 23 years now thanks to the support of entrepreneurs. With public funding, we would be able to help many more young people, but the subsidy system in Belgium is not all that efficient.”

“There are too many subsidies. As a result, you are reducing people’s drive to achieve things under their own steam. What’s more, the way the subsidy system is structured in Belgium hinders collaboration between organisations. More than anything else, every subsidised non-profit wants to hold on to its subsidies. These are often given for providing support on a one to two-year basis. Through an intensive programme, we activate young people in a much shorter period. And that’s exactly why many non-profits see a collaboration with YouthStart as a threat, because of a potential subsidy loss.”

“I sometimes wonder: are some of these organisations not more concerned with keeping themselves going instead of giving vulnerable young people the best possible support? Does the government want us to pamper these youngsters for the long term or help them become the entrepreneurs of their own lives within a short time?”

Do you see an alternative?

“Personally, I think they should replace subsidies with social impact bonds. This involves investors giving a long-term loan to a social organisation to fund a project around a social issue. If the figures show that the set objectives have been achieved, the government repays the loan to the investors; if not, it doesn’t. As a government, this enables you to have a direct impact on the business operation and the results.”

“A NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) young person costs our governments 34,000 euros a year in support. At 1,000 euros per participant, YouthStart activates 73% of them. An excellent investment for a government, wouldn’t you agree?”

YouthStart in figures

• A YouthStart training course lasts 8 days spread over 2 or 3 weeks.
• A group consists of 10 to 15 participants aged between 16 and 30.
• 77 freelance trainers supervise the young people. There are 2 trainers per course.
• An advisory board of managers assesses the young people’s business cases.
• Belgium has 273,000 NEET young people (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
• In 2021, YouthStart celebrated its 23rd anniversary and trained 1,000 young people.

Gumption supports YouthStart

Liene De Bie (Gumption): “We are supporting YouthStart financially for the third year in a row. Managing partner Bart Embrechts and Johan Driessens from Oddball were already members of the YouthStart advisory board that evaluates the young people’s business cases. Motivated YouthStart young people are always welcome to join us for an internship or a job interview.”

Do you know a young person who is interested? Go to https://youthstart.be/inschrijven

Would you like to contribute with your company? Donations are welcome via https://bit.ly/YouthStart