A specific strategy and support for the promotion of youth entrepreneurship, as well as Simplify regulations to facilitate the creation of companies by young people. These are the two main demands that this sector demands in Spain, according to the results of the‘Evaluation of the support ecosystem for inclusive youth entrepreneurship in Spain’produced byYouth Business Spain. The study has the collaboration ofObservatory of Entrepreneurship in Spain(GEM Network Spain) and is co-financed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
This evaluation has been carried out through the tool ‘Better Entrepreneurship Policy’developed by the European Commission and the OECD. It reflects a critical assessment of the development, investment and articulation of the ecosystem, as the 60 national, regional and local entities, organizations and institutions in Spain who have participated in it*.
Sara Simón, General Director of Youth Business Spainhighlighted during the presentation of the report that “a year ago we started this project with the aim of evaluating the inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem for young people in Spain and twelve months later we presented concrete and effective solutions that can improve it, through a decalogue that promotes the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit at an earlier age, develop entrepreneurial pride among young people or support initiatives to mentor young people in their entrepreneurial itineraries, among others”.
Specific programs for this group
The results and evaluations of the experts show a dissatisfaction with the current system and an improvement is demanded that promotes the culture of entrepreneurship, values and channels to publicize the different initiatives. Thus, there is a deficit in the detailed analysis of the needs of young entrepreneurs –both potential and nascent ones–, which is considered an essential prior step to be able to design new promotion and support programs for this group with guarantees. .
This evaluation also shows a lack of coordination between the different agents and programs of the ecosystem to support inclusive youth entrepreneurship and claims improve the articulation of work between entities and groups in this area.
Despite the growing number of programs focused on youth entrepreneurship in Spain, the experts consulted consider that the global offer still does not cover the needs of the different types of young people, especially those of the most vulnerable, while in some regions there is a very varied and diverse offer.
Guzmán García González, from the General Directorate of Self-Employment, Social Economy and CSR of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economywho opened the meeting, indicated that “the European youth entrepreneurship rate remains stagnant at levels of 20 years ago and it is necessary to redirect the policies that promote its development. We are in an exciting moment to promote collective entrepreneurship among the youngest. For this, we need to be disruptive, promote public-private collaboration, develop its local dimension, integrate entrepreneurial education in schools, measure its impact or learn about the real needs of the youngest”.
García González has given as an example of collective entrepreneurship, the public-private collaboration that has made possible the presentation of this evaluation of the ecosystem of support for inclusive youth entrepreneurship in Spain.
For his part,Ana Fernández, President of the Spanish Entrepreneurship Observatory (GEM Spain Network), has emphasized the need as a country to “develop a long-range national strategy for the development of inclusive youth entrepreneurship. If we want it to be strategic, public administrations, companies and universities must be included in the debate for its construction, but also schools with the aim of implementing a coordination and cooperation mechanism between the different actors to adapt it to the needs of the youths”.
Young people, key in the country’s economy
During the meeting Youth Business Spain has also presented#SomosEconomythe campaign with which you want to transfer to society the importance of young entrepreneurs and small businesses for the economy, which in most cases are driven by self-employment and micro-enterprise, in a country where 99.9% of the business fabric is made up of small and medium-sized companies, which account for 65% of GDP and generate 75% of jobs. Of the almost 3 million SMEs, 99% are micro-enterprises and the self-employed.
This initiative highlights the work of Youth Business Spain since it was founded in 2013. A decade in which it has helped generate more than 3,000 businesses created by micro-entrepreneurs with a survival rate of 87% after the first five years. “If we don’t take care of them, if we don’t protect them, the economy can’t keep going. For this reason, for us, they are small-big businesses”, he assuredLuis García Duty, President of Youth Business Spain.
The meeting ended with the colloquium ‘Challenges for youth entrepreneurship’, in which they have participatedCarlota Corzo, entrepreneur, founder of ‘Lazzaro’; Elsa Arnaiz Chico, president of ‘Talent for the future’, José Sanchez, head of Entrepreneurship at the University of Cádiz, Inma Ramos, director of Gaztenpresa of ‘Laboral Kutxa’ and José Alberto Crespo Jareño, director of the Programs Division by INJUVEwhere the importance of entrepreneurship education at an early age, training, access to financing to promote projects and the need for learning that entrepreneurs can share from their failures have been highlighted.
* Some of the entities participating in the study have been the Youth Institute (INJUVE), the office of the High Commissioner for Spain, the Entrepreneurial Nation, the EOI, the Community of Madrid, the Government of Aragon, the Junta de Castilla y León, the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, the municipalities of Barcelona, Málaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife or Zaragoza, as well as the University of the Basque Country, the University of Cádiz, the University of La Laguna, Málaga or Granada, among others.
