As the government has just introduced a [student-entrepreneur status](https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid79926/statut-national-etudiant-entrepreneur.html) for the start of the 2014 academic year, Benjamin Suchar, entrepreneur (founder of Yoopies.fr) and founding member of the Moineaux (a movement dedicated to the voice of young entrepreneurs), welcomes the symbolic progress of this measure but expresses his doubts about its real effectiveness.
Nearly a year ago, we, as very young entrepreneurs (the Moineaux), highlighted the importance of a specific scheme for the creation of businesses as students. We were pleased during the entrepreneurship conferences that this call was heard by the Minister of SMEs and the Digital Economy and by the President of the Republic.
However, the creation at the beginning of the school year of a new “student entrepreneur” status, announced by the Minister of Higher Education, Geneviève Fioraso, leaves us with a sense of incompleteness. While we appreciate the first symbolic step represented by these measures (student centers for innovation, new university diploma, consideration of entrepreneurship in ECTS credits), we regret the lack of concrete progress. Student Loan, “Entrepreneur Visa,” and true recognition of a specific status: these measures, which had been announced during the Entrepreneurship Conferences, are absent from the status.
While the status now allows student entrepreneurs to retain their social benefits for three years after the end of their studies, thereby legitimizing a situation that already existed de facto (many student entrepreneurs enrolled in university to keep their benefits without actually attending classes), it does not address the main issue faced by entrepreneurs, namely the accumulation of contributions.
The student entrepreneur status does not, in fact, challenge the obligation to contribute both to the student social security and to URSSAF, with contributions that can reach up to 2,000 euros, without even yet generating 1 euro in revenue. Furthermore, existing schemes like ACCRE, which exempts social charges for the creator during the first year, are not included in the setup. There is thus a piling up of minor measures rather than a real legal status.
Finally, the issue of the refinancing of the student loan is also crucial. Indeed, only wealthy students can take the risk of starting their business without a salary during the first years. The announcement of the doubling of aid loans for business creation is insufficient. The Moineaux have long proposed adding an “entrepreneurship” option to the student loan, to extend the loan under the same favorable conditions, in order to finance the creation of a business.
We thus call on the government to continue its efforts to enable the emergence of concrete measures to encourage entrepreneurship among young people.
by Benjamin Suchar
