Ian Robertson on the difficulties for young graduates to convince risk-adverse banks to lend...
“The most important thing is to recognise most graduate businesses don’t actually need a lot of money to set up, they don’t borrow money on the outset. The majority of people setting up a business don’t start to earn straight away, so they can’t pay loans back, and it’s even worse for debt-saddled graduates.
“The NCGE tends to look for grants and support if graduates need money. I believe we have a real issue with the banking sector in the UK, in the US some banks won’t lend to you unless you’ve had a business failure, so you can appreciate the loan. However in the UK failures are seen as a negative point when applying for a loan. The financial aspect of setting up a business can be tough, but to be honest it’s not a big issue.”
On graduate’s fear of taking on more debt at a time when the tuition fees are set to rise...
“I think tuition fees have made graduates become much more discerning, because they are paying fees they need to be more enterprising and entrepreneurial in order to get a job, or set up a business to pay back the loan. Our work isn’t actually about setting up graduate entrepreneurs, it’s about developing entrepreneurial graduates.
“Some entrepreneurial graduates will go and set up a business and other will be entrepreneurial in a company. I believe students are more entrepreneurial because of the university debt, and I don’t think the increase in fees will be detrimental setting up a business.
“It makes students think about the whole business environment much earlier on, the fees act as an incentive to make graduates more active and think about what they want and what they need to do after university.
On whether Ian thinks there’s a need for a rethink of what a graduate job means...
“Being self-employed sometimes isn’t seen as a graduate job, which is strange because it’s putting not only what you’ve learned into practise, but you’re entire personality and mind-set, which is a far more difficult task then turning up for a job at nine o’clock.
“So many jobs are multi-disciplinary, and I think the terminology of a ‘graduate job’ probably no longer applies, apart from in an official record. But graduates are in every part of the job market now, which I believe is a positive sign.”
