A NATIONAL charity dedicated to helping over-50s back into work will be holding a series of workshops in Malvern.

The Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise is running a free six-week course, starting on Thursday, January 17, focusing on setting up as selfemployed.

It will cover subjects including researching a business idea, planning finances and marketing products.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has recorded a 15 per cent increase – 185,000 people nationally – in the number of self-employed workers aged 50 to 64 over the last four years.

Prince’s Initiative chief executive Nick Bunting said: “Mature workers face a perfect storm of longer working lives, a pensions crisis, economic downturn and the uphill struggle to find employment once it is lost. Their experience is often sacrificed against cost. We help people respond positively and all the evidence shows that they make a success of it.”

Malvern entrepreneur Sue Shackleton has already benefited from taking the course, setting-up in business with her brother after she was made redundant.

“I never imagined that I would be setting up my own business in my 50s, but I had a strong desire to become self-employed, to have a direct, more simple relationship between me and my customers, to be in control, and not to be subject to the whims and changes of having someone else as my boss,” she said. “The course was very useful and helped us really button down our costs and develop the business.”

For details of the Malvern course visit prime.org.uk/courses or call 0845 862 2023.