Business Start-ups & Youth Self-Employment in the UK: A Policy Literature Review

This paper gives an overview of the key policy initiatives in the UK designed - fully or in part – to propel young people into self-employment, based on a literature review of academic and grey sources. In particular, it outlines the rationale and approaches of various initiatives originating in the public and voluntary sectors, and makes an assessment of their impact where possible. It also summarises the key features of self-employment in the UK, focusing on issues of job quality.

The paper concludes with a short discussion highlighting the various policy tensions pervading such initiatives, and develops hypotheses about the future development of youth self-employment in the UK.

The working paper is a peer-reviewed output from the STYLE (Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe) project, a research project funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework programme that applies a policy performance and learning approach to overcoming youth unemployment in Europe.