Aim
The purpose of the DP was to develop, pilot and disseminate several models of good practice for volunteer business mentoring, applicable to business start-up initiatives in different cultural, environmental and economic situations.
Background
The DP organisations were The Prince’s Trust, The Millennium Youth Awards and PRIME. The DP experience of the labour market and working with excluded groups exposed the need to develop more effective ways of engaging young people and those over 50 in acquiring the motivation and skills necessary to set up and running a business.
Objectives
The project operated in England and Wales. The objectives were to:
- recruit and train 1,500 new Business Mentors
- improve the skills of 3,000 existing Business Mentors
- measure the impact of mentoring on 5,000 business start ups
- research new mentoring models.
- develop an innovative performance management system for Business Mentors.
Main Outcomes
The DP provided extensive capacity building to these immediate beneficiaries, because they are the key personal link between people who are excluded from the labour market and the world of self-employment. There was also an impact on Start-Up Support: A model of good practice for volunteer Business Mentoring has been developed, piloted and disseminated, applicable to business start-up initiatives in different cultural, environmental and economic situations, targeting in particular excluded groups such as young unemployed people, offenders and ex-offenders, in care and leaving care and educational underachievers and people who are over 50 years of age.
