Head of School Hazel Squire has a chapter on Silver Entrepreneurs in a new book entitled Entrepreneurshp Education: A Lifelong Learning Approach edited by Sukanlaya Sawang and published by Springer.

Silver workers (entrepreneurs over 50) represent between 26 – 34% of new start ups in developed countries. This chapter discusses the specific barriers they face when considering or setting up a new business venture. The chapter also identifies policy interventions that may help to reduce some of these barriers.

The research draws on the EU Erasmus project Silver Workers which worked across five European countries (Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and the UK) to develop an online set of resources and a series of workshops to assist people in the entrepreneurship process.

Some of the businesses that were set up or assisted locally include:

• Walk the Moorlands facebook page
• Catch the Dream facebook page and website
• Creative cakes by NJ facebook page

Chapter reference – Squire H (2020) Understanding the barriers faced by older entrepreneurs: A case study of a ‘Silver Workers’ project pp 123 – 144 in Entrepreneurship Education: A lifelong Learning Approach (ed Sawang). Springer

Resources

• Silver workers project website
• Silver workers facebook page
• In the UK the government document Fuller working lives: a framework for action was launched in 2014 and this has been followed by several updates e.g. 2017 and this speech in 2019
• At the EU level this website is a good starting point

Hazel can be contacted at h.squire@staffs.ac.uk or you can follow her on twitter @HazelSquire