The importance of developing entrepreneurial skills in young people is well established as both a means to economic growth, as well as to enabling young people to achieve the goals they set out for themselves. With the emergence of innovative social enterprise models, now more than ever entrepreneurship programmes can empower young people to generate positive impact at individual and community level. However, while enterprise centres and VET institutions struggle to engage with young people, tens of thousands participate voluntarily in youth group activities, especially in the creative, performing and digital arts, presenting a clear opportunity to widen the impact of entrepreneurship education. The problem? The majority of youth workers, lack the knowledge, skills and confidence to teach entrepreneurship. YEA has been carefully structured to find new ways to integrate high quality entrepreneurship education into existing youth services and structures by training youth workers. To achieve this we will: a. Establish 4 Youth Entrepreneurship through Arts REGIONAL ALLIANCES, bringing together key youth, enterprise, and social policy stakeholders to explore best practice in integrating entrepreneurship education into creative arts youth work, devising individual and collective commitments to action in a YEA ACTION PLAN; b. Create, publish and promote the “Youth Entrepreneurship through Arts Tool kit” to encourage the creation of further Alliances across Europe. c. Develop and publish a course curriculum and learning materials to train youth workers to effectively engage the young people they work with in entrepreneurship education. d. Test, publish and strongly promote the course, to facilitate its inclusion in mainstream youth work provision. YEA will be delivered by six organizations from UK, Ireland, France and Malta with a strong cross-sector focus. 1. Dungannon Enterprise Centre, the principal supplier of entrepreneurship education and training in South Tyrone, Northern Ireland. 2. RIDC a hub organization working for community development and responsible for youth work services in Roscommon, Ireland. 3. Beam Creative Network, a youth work organization engaging over 100,000 young people in arts and drama programme, exploring issues such as diversity, cultural identity and conflict resolution. 4. Momentum, an accredited enterprise training centre with a specialization in online and blended learning. 5. Musique de Nuit Diffusion a cultural centre in Bordeaux working with disadvantaged youth. 6. Vismednet, a Maltese youth work organization whose programmes emphasise the validation of informal and nonformal learning. YEA represents a new generation of project that treats entrepreneurship as a transversal skill and a mind set which empowers young people to recognise and solve problems, create value and design sustainable initiatives. Such an approach can be used in any field the young people chooses to apply it to, creating innovation in private or public sectors, at individual or community level. As a result of our project: - hundreds of young people (18 – 30 yr olds) will strengthen their entrepreneurial mindset and acquire concrete entrepreneurial skills, manifested in the development of a proposal for a cultural project or creative initiative which is innovative, sustainable and ready to attract funding. - Enterprise providers will find new ways of engaging with hard-to-reach young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds. - Youth work and Creative Arts organizations will acquire key skills to integrate entrepreneurship mindset and skills as part of their services. - Communities will experience increase in social and knowledge capital, with young people more empowered as leaders of change in general, especially those who go on to successfully implement their cultural project. - Stakeholders in the region will understand and actively support integrated approach to ensuring high quality entrepreneurship education for more and more young people.
Context: The importance of developing entrepreneurial skills in young people is well established as both a means to economic growth, as well as to enabling young people to achieve the goals they set out for themselves. With the emergence of innovative social enterprise models, now more than ever entrepreneurship programmes can empower young people to generate positive impact at individual and community level. However, while enterprise centres & VET institutions struggle to engage with young people, tens of thousands participate voluntarily in youth group activities, especially in the creative, performing & digital arts, presenting a clear opportunity to widen the impact of entrepreneurship education. The problem? The majority of youth workers, lack the knowledge, skills & confidence to teach entrepreneurship. The YEA project was carefully structured to find new ways of integrating high quality entrepreneurship training into existing youth services & structures by training youth workers in the field of creative, performing & digital arts. The YEA project set out 2 key objectives to achieve: 1. Integration of entrepreneurship training into youth services & the promotion of entrepreneurship as a transversal skill 2. Forge an effective & replicable model to provide the learning and structure Participating Organisations: YEA was delivered by 6 orgs from UK, Ireland, France & Malta with a strong cross-sector focus: 1. Dungannon Enterprise Centre (Lead) - Principal supplier of entrepreneurship education & training in Northern Ireland 2. RIDC - Hub organisation working for community development & responsible for youth work services in Roscommon, Ireland 3. Beam Creative Network - Youth work org engaging over 200,000 young people in arts&drama programme, exploring issues such as diversity, cultural identity & conflict resolution. 4. Momentum - Accredited enterprise training centre with a specialisation in online & blended learning 5. Musique de Nuit Diffusion - Cultural centre in Bordeaux working with disadvantaged youth. 6. Vismednet - Maltese youth work organisation whose programmes emphasise the validation of informal & nonformal learning Description of undertaken main activities Over the course of 24 months (October 2015 to September 2017), the YEA partnership achieved its objectives through 4 key Intellectual Output (IO) deliverables: • IO1 Establishment of 4 sustainable, sector focused Regional Alliances to study & capture best practice in the development of Youth Enterprise through Arts. These Regional Alliances brought together key youth, enterprise, & social policy stakeholders to explore best practice in integrating entrepreneurship education into creative arts youth work, devising individual & collective commitments to action in a YEA Action Plan. • IO2 Creation, publication & promotion of the “Youth Entrepreneurship through Arts Tool kit” to encourage the creation of further Alliances across Europe. The “Toolkit to guide the establishment of a YEA Alliance” focuses on “how-to” strategies to mobilise a diverse group of stakeholders from youth work & creative arts orgs to work together & explore the creative arts as powerful conduits to engage young people in new entrepreneurship approaches. • IO3 Creation & publication of a course curriculum for Youth Workers, Vocational Education Teachers & Community & Economic Development Practitioners to effectively engage the young people they work with in entrepreneurship education & help them explore their innovation & enterprise skills through arts. • IO4 Development of an intensive blended learning “Youth Enterprise through Arts” online course based on open education resources. Results and Impact attained: YEA represents a new generation of project that treats entrepreneurship as a transversal skill & a mind set which empowers young people to recognise & solve problems, create value & design sustainable initiatives. Such an approach can be used in any field the young people chooses to apply it to, creating innovation in private or public sectors, at individual or community level. As a result of the project: • hundreds of young people (18-30 yr olds) strengthened their entrepreneurial mindset & acquired concrete entrepreneurial skills, manifested in the development of a proposal for a cultural project or creative initiative which were innovative, sustainable & ready to attract funding • Enterprise providers found new ways of engaging with hard-to-reach young people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds • Youth work & Creative Arts organisations acquired key skills to integrate entrepreneurship mindset & skills as part of their services • Communities experienced increase in social & knowledge capital, with young people more empowered as leaders of change in general, especially those who go on to successfully implement their cultural project. • Stakeholders in the region understand & actively support integrated approach to ensure high