Male entrepreneurs on decline, youth leader urges action

A youth business development official on Thursday sounded the alarm that interest in entrepreneurship among males has plunged to troubling levels over the last two decades, with only one in five aspiring business owners now being male. 

Ryan Moseley, acting manager of the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES), made a rallying call to young men to “lift up” themselves and show their worth.

Speaking during the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week at the CIBC Caribbean Regional Head Office in Warrens, Moseley said: “What we at YES have recognised is that there is a serious imbalance where males are concerned. I don’t know if the other agencies experience this, but in my 20 years in entrepreneurship, I have seen a steady decline where the females outnumber the males; it is almost a four-to-one ratio, and it is extremely troubling for us.”

Moseley added that the latest publication by the organisation focused heavily on reaching out to young men to get them involved in entrepreneurial ventures.

“I am not against focusing primarily on women for activities in entrepreneurship, but I think what may have happened is that because the focus was so heavily on females, less focus was placed on males,” he said. “I do appreciate the concept that females are the major caregivers, they don’t have the time to indulge in entrepreneurial training, and so on, so programmes had to be designed primarily for them…. But what has happened is that we have realised that males have tended to shy away from taking the opportunities that are presented. The opportunities are there, but the uptick in registration—and we see it at every core within our entrepreneur development training—is such that males are just decorations within the plethora of females in the classes.”

Moseley said that, by extension, the Ministry of Youth has had to adjust its youth development programmes and tailor certain aspects to target more males.

“We really want to encourage males to take advantage and lift themselves,” the YES manager said. “We have a special programme within the Ministry of Youth Sports and Community Empowerment called the Block Transformation Unit, where guys and girls on the blocks are targeted. They are provided with training and start-up equipment to become entrepreneurial. The focus is also heavily on males because we recognise there are more males on the blocks than females. This is a strategic approach to target males.

“We do not have anything against females, but we recognise that the trend is going in the negative,” he said.

The general manager of the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT), Cardell Fergusson, also said her organisation had just rolled out a new programme, funded by the European Commission, focusing on males and providing them with opportunities for economic empowerment.

“This programme, what we’ll be doing is partnering with organisations across Barbados that will then provide our young men with opportunities to grow personally through their careers and professionally,” she said. 

“So what we are doing is partnering with organisations that already have programmes for males to provide a holistic programme for them because we recognise entrepreneurship is for everyone, but not everyone can become an entrepreneur. We believe that entrepreneurial skills can be implemented in all spheres of life. You can be an entrepreneur as an employee, and you can be an entrepreneur in your own business. We are going to be assessing the participants in the programme to determine which stream is best for them—entrepreneurship or employment—and then work with partners within the ecosystem to channel them in the right way.”

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2024 runs next week, and the BYBT is partnering with several non-governmental agencies and youth development organisations to host a range of activities. (SZB)