Co-working space partners with crowdfunded scheme to develop young entrepreneurs
Nottingham co-working, shared office and event space, Works Social, is set to work with crowdfunded project, Collaborative Future, with the aim of giving young people access to a range of work experience opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills.
Collaborative Future, a social enterprise which supports diverse groups to collaborate, aims to create inclusive spaces where people can thrive. With support from Works Social and other pledges through Crowdfunder.co.uk the Collaborative Future team is piloting a new work placement scheme to support young people (18-24 year olds) not in full-time education and employment to access flexible two-week work placements within a community of freelancers and small businesses.
Works Social is backing the pilot scheme by pledging access to its membership of freelancers and micro-businesses, as well as being the host venue for the launch of the scheme and providing desk and meeting room space for other events, briefings and 1-2-1 meetings with businesses and the young people on the scheme.
Having left education at 18 with little idea of what she wanted to do Tessa Cooper, founder of Collaborative Future, has forged a successful career at Future Learn, Comic Relief and The Guardian and attributes her success to the support from family and role models she’s been fortunate enough to meet. She founded Collaborative Future as full-time employment was no longer working for her as a young mother, believing that young people deserve opportunities to develop themselves.
Cooper said: “Our aim is to offer opportunities for flexible, paid work placements for young people not in full-time education or full-time employment, that will provide a wide-range of transferable skills that can help them find full-time employment or inspire them to set up their own business.”
Han van Oudheusden, co-founder of Works Social said: “We’re passionate about young people having the opportunity to experience the real world of work at a seminal stage to help them identify what makes them tick, where their skillset lies and how they can translate that into a vocation that they can excel at and enjoy.
“As the futureofwork is changing, a coworking community feels like the perfect environment for the Collaborative Futures scheme to thrive and we are proud, as main sponsors, to share our space, resources and skills with this much needed and worthwhile initiative. We hope this collaboration will open up opportunities for mutual and meaningful collaborations for both the young people involved and our members.”
Cooper added: “With Works Social’s support we are able to trial a collaborative approach where freelancers and small businesses can minimise the overheads of employing interns/apprentices while also gaining benefits of having the skills and fresh perspective that young people can provide.”
Nottingham based freelancers and small businesses are being invited to commit between from one day up to one week of time to take on a young person to support with projects in October/November 2019. Collaborative Future will support the businesses and young people involved to get the most out of the experience.
The crowdfunding campaign is open until July 18th an can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/collaborative-future-work-placement-scheme. Applications for businesses and young people will not open until the funding target has been achieved anyone interested can register at:https://collaborativefuture.typeform.com/to/xaQoC2.
