Young Person's Start Up Grant

The Young Person's Start Up Grant has been developed as part of our commitment to the Young Person's Guarantee. To make sure we understand the needs of young entrepreneurs, we've held conversations with young people through the Youth Voice and our Youth Agents. They told us that accessing finance, business knowledge and confidence remain key constraints to starting a business.

Big Ideas Wales wants to help you overcome these challenges and will play a key part in delivering support for young people to become self-employed. This will help you learn about business, work with an adviser to prepare for self-employment, and potentially access a financial grant to help you start up.

The Young Person's Start Up Grant will be available up to 2025 to enable Welsh young people not in education, employment or training to:

• start their own business
• create a social enterprise
• become self-employed, a freelancer or social entrepreneur

A grant of up to £2,000 is available to help young people starting a business. To make sure the business has the best possible chance to succeed, the grant will be available alongside a package of support that will include one-to-one advice and webinars to build confidence in business practices and develop plans for starting a business.

The package of support has defined learning phases so that young people can join at the stage best suited to their needs and allows them to progress at their own pace. So whether you need intensive support to get started or longer-term support to help think through and develop your business ideas, an adviser can talk through your needs and advise you on the best path; or a lighter touch that guides you through to launching your business.

Express your interest in the Young Person's Start Up Grant

Eligibility criteria

A grant of up to £2,000 is available to help young people under the age of 25 who are living in or returning to Wales to become self-employed. Your business case will need to demonstrate that it has the potential to become your main source of income.

Sign up for our webinar

The aim of the webinar is to help you decide if the grant is for you, and answer any questions you might have. Book your place now