2020 marked the beginning of unprecedented health, economic, social and cultural crises caused by the spread of COVID-19 through Europe and the whole world. The situation that has arisen placed new challenges in the socio-economic and cultural sectors. The economic recession has put unemployment rates high. The consequences of the lockdowns across Europe have created gaps in the educational and training of young people and placed significant obstacles to their entry into the labour market. However, creative minds of young people and entrepreneurs have found ways to cope with the current situation and create positive value out of it.
The project Youth Entrepreneurs in Time of Crisis (YETC) aims to facilitate youth activism and foster an entrepreneurial mindset through networking, sharing best practices and developing innovative NIFL tools. The project results will help young people overcome the uncertainty caused by the unstable socio-economic situation across Europe and create a positive value by filling the gaps and promoting new entrepreneurial endeavours. The YETC project addresses the needs of young people and youth workers in finding realisation of their creative ideas and initiatives through entrepreneurship and active participation.
The main target groups are young people aged 18-30, youth workers and young people with fewer opportunities and NEETs, regardless of their origins, social status, experience, and youth organisations, which are interested in the topic of entrepreneurship and provide (or want to provide) training and services for stimulating youth activism and an entrepreneurial mindset among their networks of young people.
YETC foresees the direct involvement of at least 120 young people in the events in which NFIL methods of training will be used and more than 2000 users of the project results. YETC unites six NGOs, working with young people from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, North Macedonia, Italy and Poland. The European dimension of YETC will allow the transfer of best practices between youth organisations in different counties and promote entrepreneurial thinking, youth activism, social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding among young people with different cultural and social backgrounds.
The expected tangible results include countries’ snapshots and action plan, Inspirational best practices guide along with database (50 best practices) and video collection (of 8 best practices), an online course and training toolkit on entrepreneurship and youth activism in times of crisis, the implementation of Bootcamp for entrepreneurship skills for youth workers and 6 local training sessions with young people.
In a broader sense, the project Young Entrepreneurs in Times of Crisis aims at creating opportunities and synergies for young people to initiate entrepreneurial activities and be active in their communities. Thus, the general objective of YETC is to facilitate youth activism and entrepreneurship through networking, sharing best practices and developing innovative NFIL tools.
The spread of COVID-19 can also be seen in the light of a catalyser for new entrepreneurial endeavours, a stimulus for a positive change and a solid reason for fostering Europe’s resilience process. Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in any economic, social and cultural setting, using the skills and initiative necessary to anticipate needs and bringing good new ideas to stimulate growth and social cohesion. By using young people’s motivation, embracing their creativity, unique strengths and knowledge, the project aims at setting the foundation for new entrepreneurial activities.
Revolving around this conceptualisation, the YETC project sets the following specific objectives:
- to contribute to building the capacity of youth workers and youth organisations by joint research activities, training and cooperation
- to promote young entrepreneurs in partner countries through collecting good practices, producing a guide and video collection and organising a networking event
- to create new NFIL tools and modules promoting entrepreneurship and youth activism tailored to the current needs of young people in the partnering countries
The project’s expected tangible results are as follows:
- country snapshots and action plan for youth entrepreneurship based on research activities and a survey of young people’s attitudes toward starting a new entrepreneurial initiatives in times of crisis
- the production of an online Inspirational guide Youth Entrepreneurship Endeavours with stories and practical steps for starting a business in time of crisis (50 best practices) and a video collection of 8 best practices selected
- the production of online course and training toolkit for entrepreneurship and youth activism
- Training of trainers for youth workers (3 per partner, 3 days) on stimulating entrepreneurial mindset – Bootcamp for entrepreneurial skills
- the implementation of 6 local training sessions with 20 participants each
Project ID No.: 2021-1-BG01-KA220-YOU-000028893
Duration: 01-02-2022 – 30-09-2023
Partners: Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Culture and Education (Coordinator, Bulgaria), Demostene Centro Studi Per La Promozione Dello Sviluppo Umano (Italy), Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Group (Greece), Fundacja Inkubator Innowacji (Poland), Association for Sustainable Development SFERA International Bitola (North Macedonia), Asociatia Europeana de Dezvoltare a Adultilor (Romania)
More information: yetcproject.eu
The project is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program.