Launceston’s new entrepreneurship facilitator is aiming to see 50 new businesses created in the North by 2021, with a goal of reducing the region’s youth unemployment problem.
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Businesswoman Talitha Devadass has been appointed by the federal government in a bid to tackle youth unemployment in embattled regions, along with other facilitators working in Cairns, and the Hunter Valley.
With a background in entrepreneurship and business, Ms Devadass has experience working with the Beacon Foundation and Illuminate.Education, helping young people across the state prepare for the jobs of the future
Ms Devadass said she will be travelling throughout the North to help young people develop their business ideas, including Flinders Island, Deloraine and Scottsdale.
Part of the business accelerator program the Van Diemen Project, Ms Devadass said she would guide young person's in executing their ideas, including writing a business plan, and developing an overarching strategy.
“I was in Scottsdale not that long ago, at the high school working with their year nine or ten cohort, and speaking to a young guy who wants to be a coder, and he trained himself.
“But in order to get to that next step, if it’s not sort of harnessed and he’s not given the mentoring support, he probably won’t do that.”
Van Diemen Project executive director Adam Mostogl said the program would prepare young people for a casualised workforce, allowing them to develop the skills to freelance.
“We want to see the youth unemployment rate change in this region, and part of that will be not only raising people to be entrepreneurs but also be intrapreneurs and be valuable contributors to other businesses,” he said.
“We’re looking to create a series of case studies and profiles of young people who are doing good things, a major part of this is actually just raising awareness that entrepreneurship is a viable alternative.”
Youth unemployment has increased in Tasmania from 15.5 per cent in November 2015, to 16.2 per cent in the same month of this year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“We know that Tasmania’s small business primarily employ less than five people, and if we can get some of these entrepreneurs to grow their business, in time, employment will happen,” Ms Devadass said.