How do you start when employers want someone who already started? A jobs platform for Gen Z

8 Apr

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Zara Ransley is the co-founder of MyPocketSkill, a tech platform connecting young people to money-earning tasks and enabling them to save.

In this episode Zara tells us how financial education is behavioural, and the key to ‘getting good with money’ is practical rather than theoretical - learning what to do with your money as you earn it. This is a gap that is missing in formal education and is one that Zara and her co-founder Matt are aiming to fill with MyPocketSkill.

I ask Zara about hustle culture and if young people are under increasing pressure to, not only work, but create multiple income streams and cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit. Whilst this may be the case culturally, Zara is clear that employment opportunities for young people have reduced over decades due to increases in regulation and academic pressure, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Zara tells us why she’s glad they didn’t pursue investment for MyPocketSkill straight away, choosing instead to bootstrap for the first few years of the business, which gave them the flexibility to experiment with finding the right solution. I also ask Zara the controversial question about whether her MBA from London Business School has tangibly helped her, or not, in building the business.

In this episode, Zara quotes a figure that 60 million people in the UK have less than £100 in savings. This is an error. The 2018 Financial Capability Survey found that 11.5 million people in the UK have less than £100 in savings.

Zara is a Women in Innovation Award winner. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with an innovative idea, see how Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation Award could support you.

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THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY

This episode is sponsored by Claro, the digital financial coaching app. Sign up for early access today and protect 25 trees in the Amazon, visit https://claromoney.co.uk/raisethebar/.