Young people on the hopes, misconceptions and barriers of self-employment : Part 2

In this post, Sonia, our Community Advocate, shares our collective learnings of supporting young people to explore self-employment through our last programme, focusing on awareness, community and lifestyle.

This blogpost is part two of the series - to read the beginning click here.

Awareness

“Honestly, it’s [self-employment] not really considered as an option at all. I never heard about it growing up, even though being an artist, especially a writer, has always been at the top of my list. Self-employment is never mentioned, not going to university is spoken about but it’s often presented as an undesirable, though sometimes unavoidable alternative that you have to make the best of, rather than an active choice or something that could, in the end, be better for you than formal education.” said Blue. This way of thinking which is ingrained in so many young peoples minds massively limits their own perceptions of what they think they are capable of.

We challenged this thinking and actively empowered individuals by focussing on their skills and strengths via mentoring sessions throughout the programme. Mika, our Creative Future programme alumni said “With just a college education, warehouse work was the only option in my head. Now, I have a new perspective and knowledge to set up and start my own business.”. Lucy shared that completing the interview task [see below] for our programme was the first time they were able to have time and space to research self-employment. They said “Lack of knowledge and confidence was a barrier [to pursuing self-employment], not knowing where the first place to look at would have to be. I had no idea when to register as self-emp which put me off setting up my Etsy store.. The financial side was scary.“

'Challenges of self-employment' Infographic — Infographic by our alumni Lucy

Community

For her task, Mika looked into work twitter #worktwt as a way to join a community and have a space to share experiences of starting a new role, or setting up her own business. The nature of the platform means that getting access to advice about self-employment would be quick, and links to resources or tags to people could be easily shared. Small actions such as sharing journal entries and goals for the week would help to keep track of progress, while building a support network to keep you accountable and celebrate achievements.

These elements have long been implemented within our programmes; regular remote and in-person check-ins, mentoring sessions, socials, celebrating achievements, group workshops and coaching. But, these alone don’t make a community - everything we do at Collaborative Future links back to our vision, a future of work where everyone is valued and empowered. This is informed by our values of choice, connection, courage, wellbeing and growth (find out what they mean here). It’s also important to recognise that an individual might need a community more tailored to their experiences. For example if you’re exploring freelancing as a parent, a woman, an immigrant, a disabled person. “I want to know about people with dyspraxia, fibromyalgia, dyscalculia, ADHD, autistic people who’re flourishing/overcoming/breaking barriers, in every industry, but particularly the creative.” says Blue. As an example of specific communities, we recommend following Doing it for the kids if you’re a parent looking into freelancing, or Like Minded Females Network if you’re looking at women focussed communities.

Lifestyle

The human mind naturally sticks to the negative - the financial risks feel debilitating. But the self-employment lifestyle provides so much positive impact that is so interlinked to mental and physical wellbeing, not only the individual but also their circles. The remote and flexible way of working on our programmes mirrored self-employment, and that has worked the charm for so many of our young people who took this opportunity to navigate chronic illnesses, peaks and troughs in mental health, support and care for children, parents and siblings without the fear of needing to be at a desk from 9 in the morning, with your mind still at home.

“One of the main attractions to me when it comes to the whole freelance lifestyle is the money but primarily the freedom of being your own boss and being able to explore your passions and further explore unique talents which we all hold.” said Taylor in his interview task - see a still of his animation for a social media campaign highlighting the freedom aspect of freelancing on the side.

Our team has actively championed this way of thinking by sharing what this way of working has allowed us to do - see Tess’s tweet on the side- and empowering our cohort to use our programme to explore their own interests and passions.

“[The perks of self-employment are] working as hard as you want to work, being responsible for your world, being your own boss” said an interviewee on the video Casey created for his interview task - watch the video in full on the side.

Thanks to Mika, Chantelle, Lucy, Blue, Taylor and Casey for their contributions. Find out more about this cohort through our Impact Report. If you’d like support on how you can support people with discovering the world of work that works for them, get in touch - we’re at hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk. Below are other ways we can work together.