Back to work by working together

Submitted by: Craig Cockburn

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

People want to work. No-one wants to be in poverty, yet in a credit crunch even highly skilled people (myself included) are finding it extremely difficult to find work and of course there is no sense of precedence of having two candidates with nothing to choose between them, so you take the candidate who has been out of work the longest.

The financial pain and emotional suffering from long term unemployment splits families, causes crime and hurts children. My plan goes some way to address these issues by addressing them at source.

It ties up with the DWP and the local Enterprise networks and statistics on unemployment and government info on enterprise zones, regional aid and so on.

When someone goes to the local jobcentre or claims income support or jobseekers allowance, they should be given the option of also registering to say if they are interested in setting up in business, what kind of self employed work they want to do and what they can offer.

Jobseekers can then search a database of other people looking for similar work so that teams of related complimentary skills can be found. e.g. a technical person could locate a marketing person to help them develop an idea. A business manager could find someone to help them with the accounts. Businesses are stronger and more effective when the workload can be shared and there are complimentary skills working together. A part time mum looking for some income might be able to contribute valuable skills to a start-up specialising in children's goods for instance.

In this way, core teams to start the business can be formed and it will be easier to get the business off the ground with the team on board, possibly with the help of government funding and support from private individuals/investors etc who always invest in a team, not just an idea!

The effect of this is that rather than waiting in a long queue for a permanent job, people can set themselves up and do what they really want to do, easier and faster and help their local community in the process by providing employment and economic support through a successful startup.

What information or services do you need?

A searchable map of the UK showing what help was available in any area/postcode for people wanting to set up in business, with a particular focus towards help for unemployed and/or people claiming income support (not just those seeking jobseeker's allowance). This could then plug into the additional information supplied by prospective jobseekers showing where the "help" resources are.

The government would also be able to use this information to target funding more accurately towards people's needs and where appropriate involve industry/venture financiers in to provide matching funding and support (or possibly even all the funding if it's a knock out idea, the next Google etc)