Redundancy to see rise in sole traders

Date: 19th February 2009

Rising levels of redundancy have led to a surge in new sole traders, as individuals look to retrain.

As reported by the Financial Times, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has claimed that the number of start-ups and sole traders will rise over the next year as people turn to self-employment.

Estimates from the federation suggest that as many as 500,000 entrepreneurs decided to go it alone last year.

Managing director at Open Study College, a distance learning centre, Matthew Jones, told the Financial Times that this rise had been reflected in education.

He said: "We have seen a specific increase in the more entrepreneurial courses.

"These would include bookkeeping, childcare, event management and even journalism - courses that would allow a student to then go and work for themselves."

Earlier this month, the FSB called for the government to implement more action to help small businesses, after a survey revealed that 97 per cent of firms believed the VAT cut had not helped them.