According to the survey „Young people and labor market” conducted by Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy, the majority of young people prefer to be employed on the basis of a fixed-term employment contract which is consistent with the opinion of the major part of the society. There is also a big percentage of people among youths who are planning to set up their own business activity and become entrepreneurs – says Sławosz Sawicki, chairman for coordination of strategic projects in City Handlowy during a press meeting Hi-Tech Start Up.
As the survey shows, 95 per cent of people with fixed-term employment contracts are pleased with this form of an agreement, which also dominates on the labor market – there are three quarters of the majority of employees with fixed-term employment contracts. 66 per cent of the fellow citizens identify a fixed-term employment contract with a sense of security and this percentage amounts to 39 per cent among students.
60 per cent of young people take only fixed-term employment contracts into consideration. 12 per cent want to reconcile it with their own economic activities. According to 80 per cent of the respondents, this form provides them with greater independency and opportunity for realization of their own ideas. At present, more and more people are becoming interested in running their own business activity. It is all about total independency, they do not want to be cogs in corporations, they do not want to work for someone, they want to do something for themselves. They would like to achieve success in the future which will allow them to feel proud of what they did and earn some money – explains Jacek Aleksandrowicz, vice-chairman and co-founder of Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator. There is a huge hidden potential in such an optimistic way of thinking about entrepreneurship. However, institutional support is necessary. According to data of Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy, 35 per cent of the surveyed pointed out financial support as a crucial form of support at setting up an economic activity. It is also important to simplify formalities related to that issue. Incubators are really helpful in this battle against possible barriers and they offer a chance for setting up a company experimentally, without ZUS. It means that we may run a business activity under the wings of an incubator and substantially limit the risk, bureaucracy and costs – says Jacek Aleksandrowicz.
On the example of other programs of Kronenberg Foundation aimed at start-ups, we may notice that a crucial element which has an impact on development of a company at its early stage is access to monitoring, that is people who are able to assistance young people during realization of this first stage of formulation of an idea and business model – explains Sławosz Sawicki. The second important element is access to a broad network of contacts, that is so called networking, which enables establishment of contacts to young companies with industry, surrounding, and thus establish themselves on the market – adds Sawicki.
According to experts, it is worth supporting initiatives of young people due to e.g. innovativeness of their ideas. The reason for it are their projects submitted to the Hi-Tech Startup program which is an effect of cooperation of Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy and Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator. The aim of this enterprise is commercialization of technological concepts suggested by young people. We have mentors, experts and experienced entrepreneurs who work with those people on developing an idea, business model and sales model as well as testing that business idea. These enterprises will start in incubators to see whether they are profitable and to help participants in gaining capital for development and conducting a business on a large scale in the future – explains Jacek Aleksandrowicz.