MENTEE: MEntoring, Networking and Training for European Entrepreneurs

In the Europe2020 perspective, entrepreneurship is a pillar and fostering entrepreneurial spirit is considered a priority to deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In the recent crisis, with significant unemployment rates and even higher youth unemployment, European countries need to focus even more on promoting entrepreneurship among young generation as an alternative solution to the lack of jobs. However, young entrepreneurs need: a conducive environment for their ideas and businesses; support from policy makers and local communities; a network of contacts and opportunities to share their ideas; and advice and inspiration from experienced entrepreneurs. The EC, through Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) programme, funds "wanna-be" or young entrepreneurs (<3 years of experience, which is also the definition of "young entrepreneur" adopted by MENTEE) to stay abroad with experienced entrepreneurs to validate their business ideas and gain insight into the real life of European SMEs. However, what happens when the benefit of the EYE relationship is over? Initial analysis of 3.600 entrepreneurs taking part in EYE, showed that just 30% were able to realize a business idea at the end of the project, and 80% of these succeed because the host keep on shadowing them as mentor and supporter. So although EYE is very effective in terms of participants, a 6 month placement is not enough to ensure that a young entrepreneur is able to develop a healthy business and overcome the first difficult years of a start-up. The initiative has no follow-up phase, with participants left in need of further training, inspiration and a community to share ideas and opportunities for growth. Of course there are numerous local support initiatives, but MENTEE aimed to fill this gap and provide young entrepreneurs with a strong international network of support (as often EYE participants have business ideas involving international dimension), including mentors that can share practical knowledge, skills and advice; other peers to connect with, and e-learning tools and information to build their business. Originally the outcomes were meant to be mostly valuable to the entrepreneurs who had previous international experience with EYE, however in practice the project gained interest of entrepreneurs in general. MENTEE objectives included: - transfer a successful mentoring model to the target group of young entrepreneurs - train and prepare experienced entrepreneurs to use mentoring (Mentoring Circles) - provide face-to-face mentoring to young entrepreneurs in 4 partner countries - adapt an online platform for further learning and networking opportunities. All the above objectives were met, and the quality assurance tools reported good levels of quality, both in terms of working processes as well as in terms of achieved results and impact of implemented activities. The Intellectual Outputs developed by Mentee: - Competence frameworks for key entrepreneurship competences (O1) and key mentoring competences (O2) - Young Entrepreneurs Skills and Competencies Manual (O3) - Mentoring Circles Programme and Facilitators Manual (O4) - Social Collaborative & Learning Platform for Young Entrepreneurs (O5) - e-Modules for Young Entrepreneurs Learning Online (O6) In addition to the outcomes above, the partnership has organised 9 multiplier events in all partners' countries, which had critical relevance for disseminating the project results to its target groups, and even more important, in total 8 pilots of Mentoring Circles were conducted, and not only they validated the manuals and materials developed by MENTEE, but also the participants reported great satisfaction with the approach and mentoring methodology proposed by this project. Overall, there is evidence that the MENTEE impact has been strong and very positive mostly on the young entrepreneurs who were more directly involved in the project (e.g. participation in the pilots, events or platform), but also on entrepreneurship support actors that were familiarized with the Mentoring Circles approach and tools and will be able to benefit from them in future. Close relations with EYE organisations also impacted their perception of the longer-term needs of entrepreneurs, not to mention the positive impact on the project partners, who have enriched their competences to mentor and support entrepreneurs. Therefore in long-term MENTEE has definitely contributed to creation/growth of an entrepreneurial generation with a new mindset able to generate new strong business opportunities, jobs and global development of society. The MENTEE partnership (7 partners from 5 countries: PL,UK,PT,IT,GR) has gathered well qualified organisations, whose profiles were not only suitable to successfully implement the project (incl. organisations with experience in EYE, training and business support SMEs, a technical partner for IT developments...) but will also allow future exploitation of results produced.