TURNING ENTREPRENEURIAL POTENTIAL INTO AGENCY
Dynamis is the UK’s membership network for early entrepreneurial careers. We bring universities and colleges together with enterprise, employment, employers, finance, technology, government, mentors and communities to make entrepreneurship a visible, connected and supported pathway for people aged 16–30.
THE WORLD OF WORK IS CHANGING FASTER THAN THE PATHWAYS INTO IT
Young people are entering a labour market in which the traditional first steps into working life are becoming less reliable. Employment, apprenticeships and higher education remain essential. But they cannot be the whole response when entry-level opportunities are contracting and technology is changing the tasks on which early careers have traditionally been built.
The response must include the capacity to create opportunity as well as compete for it.
981,000
people aged 16–24 were not in education, employment or training in April to June 2026: 13.0% of the age group. Source: Office for National Statistics, 27 August 2026.
45.6%
year-on-year fall in graduate vacancies listed by Adzuna in July 2026, from 15,397 to 8,383. Source: Adzuna data reported by BBC News, August 2026.
36%
of surveyed UK employers said they had reduced entry-level jobs during the previous year. Source: Work Foundation research reported by Reuters, 25 August 2026.
WE CANNOT RESPOND ONLY BY PREPARING YOUNG PEOPLE FOR JOBS
Entrepreneurship must become a mainstream part of the transition from education into working life.
That does not mean every young person must found a high-growth company. Entrepreneurial participation includes small business, self-employment, freelancing, side ventures, social and creative enterprise, portfolio careers and creating value inside existing organisations.
The objective is agency and optionality: the ability to move between employment, enterprise and independent economic activity as circumstances and ambitions change.
Entrepreneurship is not an inherited trait or a privilege reserved for people with founders in the family. The capabilities behind it can be learned, practised and strengthened.
Dynamis uses EntreComp, the European entrepreneurship competence framework, as a shared language across the network. Its three areas - Ideas and Opportunities, Resources and Into Action - help members recognise capability, map provision and identify what is missing.
EntreComp is a reference framework, not a compulsory curriculum. Members retain their own identities, methods and programmes.
THE SYSTEM HAS TO CONNECT
Education, business support, mentoring, networks, finance, technology and practical opportunities already exist. Too often, they exist as separate interventions. A young person can complete a programme and still have no clear next step, no relevant introduction and no way to sustain momentum.
Dynamis does not replace effective provision or force people through a single programme. We connect the services, relationships and opportunities around each person so that their individual path can continue.
FOUR FUNCTIONS. ONE CONNECTED PURPOSE.
01
CONVENE
Bring universities and colleges together with the institutions that shape education, employment, enterprise and local growth.
02
CONNECT
Make mentors, founders, employers, finance, technology and professional support reachable across existing boundaries.
03
STRENGTHEN
Connect effective provision into a coherent pathway, identify gaps and improve referral without imposing one delivery model.
04
REPRESENT
Build evidence and a collective, independent voice for early entrepreneurial careers.
FROM FIRST EXPOSURE TO SUSTAINED PARTICIPATION
The Dynamis Entrepreneurship Roadmap makes support visible across five connected stages. It is not a funnel and it does not prescribe one destination. It helps each person identify the next relevant step.
A NATIONAL NETWORK,
UNIVERSITY-ANCHORED LOCAL ECOSYSTEMS.
Universities and colleges are the natural educational and civic anchors for early entrepreneurial careers. They offer continuity, trusted infrastructure, expertise, regional reach and relationships with students, graduates, employers and communities.
CONNECTED SERVICES
FURTHER EDUCATION
EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
ENTERPRISE SUPPORT
EDUCATIONAL ANCHOR
UNIVERSITIES
& COLLEGES
WIDER ECOSYSTEM
EMPLOYERS · FOUNDERS · FINANCE
TECHNOLOGY · PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
GOVERNMENT · COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS
Dynamis connects the wider ecosystem around that anchor: further education, employment services, enterprise support, employers, founders, finance, technology, professional services, government and community organisations.
The institution does not have to deliver everything. Its role is to help make the pathway coherent, reachable and rooted in learning.
Dynamis is bringing together institutions and people who believe that young people should be equipped not only to find opportunity, but to create it.
Membership is free during the founding phase. Members help shape the network, contribute evidence and practice, build referral routes and strengthen the collective case for entrepreneurial careers.
