Wage Earners, Workplace Rights & Pensions

Enterprise Project for job seekers

Application for Initiative

About the project

The Enterprise initiative is for those on the unemployment register who want to create their own job and start their own business.

Participants receive education and guidance, explore the need for their future services or products on the market and draw up a business plan for the project in question. In this way they can assess whether the project is realistic and what is needed to create a job.

Duration of the project

The total duration of the project is 6 months.

Education

The course lasts for three months. Participants have access to educational material on the web about the preparation of business plans. The educational material is in the form of lectures online, they are in Icelandic but each section has English subtitles.

Furthermore, participants receive guidance and advice every week, from the mentor and from the employees of Frumkvæði, where business plans, presentations, corporate form and the process of starting a business are taken into account.

Working room

The participants meet in a workshop or in a company workshop every week for up to 12 times. They commit to attend lectures once or twice a week, participate actively, work on their business plan and present it to the group.

The presentations consist of:

one 1 minute lifting speech,
four 1-minute status reports,
two 5 minute investor presentations with slides.

The emphasis is on peer education, which means that participants give feedback to each other after presentations.

Continuing

After three months, participants must submit a 6-12 page business plan to the Directorate of Labour, which will call them to a meeting to review the plan, the status of the project and its continuation.

Participants must have an approved unemployment benefit entitlement and have at least six months remaining of their benefit entitlement period.
The business idea is considered by a counsellor likely to create future employment for the jobseeker.
The jobseeker is prepared to familiarize themselves with the operation and establishment of companies.
The jobseeker cannot have an open registration on the Wage Payer’s Registry or have an ID number for calculated remuneration with tax office before applying for the program.
That the applicant discloses his or her circumstances truthfully. A contract may be terminated if the job seeker does not disclose his or her circumstances truthfully, if there is a change in the applicant's status, or if the project is not considered likely to deliver the desired results. Before a contract is terminated, the job seeker is given the opportunity to inform the Directorate of Labour of his or her assessment of the project's results.
If the applicant is participating in another measure that conflicts with the project, such as vocational training, or if the person concerned has been given a waiting period due to redundancy, the applicant may be rejected.

At the end of the project

Those who receive a 6 month approved period must submit a final report at the end of the project and attend a final meeting with the consultants of Frumkvæði. There they must also confirm whether they have left the register and gone to work at the company, have gone to part-time work or have abandoned the idea.

If the business idea or project is cancelled, a declaration must be signed that the person concerned will not start operations without notifying the Directorate of Labour.

Declaration form

The form can be sent to: frumkvaedi@vmst.is

Application process

Applications are received electronically from 1 to 31 of each month. Applications are evaluated and processed before the 15th of the following month and all applicants receive an e-mail for processing.

The training usually starts in the following month, for example: applications for September are processed in October, and the training starts in November.

Confirming job search

Job seekers must confirm their job search every month on My pages between 20 - 25 in a traditional manner but are still exempt from job search during the project and the business idea is tested.

Questions can be sent to: frumkvaedi@vmst.is