Based on our recent successful experience with an Entrepreneurship Academy on the national level, we plan to organize a 7-days intensive Summer Entrepreneurship Academy to develop the skills of 30 youth participants who already have valid and promising business concepts, but lack the business acumen to develop them. This academy will teach them the entire process from idea development to the realization of an actual business. We realize that an important next step in development of a friendly entrepreneurial environment includes more than the entrepreneurs themselves – it also requires a change in the current education, business and NGO environment, so our plan is to create effective networks that will keep the conversation going past the academy. One unique aspect of the event will be the workshop environment – we want to utilize an informal, friendly, open communication with team-building, workshops and active learning to facilitate exchange of ideas, networking and future collaboration. Our lecturers will be representatives from well-established businesses who can share their experience, inspire the participants and provide mentorship. (This aspect was rated as one of the most helpful to our participants in the Entrepreneurship Academy). To our knowledge, this will be the first international Entrepreneurship Academy in our region and will offer a great opportunity to combine the diverse experiences, knowledge and skills from the participating countries. Innovation is born in conducive and cooperative environments, and our goal is to create one in the Balkan region with youth from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, and to empower young people to become the “engine” of positive change. After the Entrepreneurship academy is over, we expect that our target group will be better informed about the process of transforming an idea to a real product. They will be theoretically and empirically prepared for writing project proposals, developing their ideas and pitching them to potential investors. They will be further informed about the variety of possible funding sources (state, private, international, etc.). Young people will also have a chance to share their ideas with others who share their interest and motivation, and could collaborate to make them a reality. We hope that after this academy the participants will be more confident in their abilities and fearless to the obstacles that lie ahead, inspiring others along the way. We will make it our priority to make sure that they can count on continuous access to expertise, guidance and assistance in their future endeavours. Showing young people that their ideas and vision matter will be the ultimate award for our team.
Based on our recent successful experience with an Entrepreneurship Academy on the national level, we organized a 7-days intensive Summer Entrepreneurship Academy to develop the skills of 30 youth participants who already had valid and promising business concepts, but lack the business acumen to develop them. This academy teached them the entire process from idea development to the realization of an actual business. We realized that an important next step in development of a friendly entrepreneurial environment includes more than the entrepreneurs themselves – it also requires a change in the current education, business and NGO environment, so our plan was to create effective networks that will keep the conversation going past the academy. One unique aspect of the event was the Academy environment – we wanted to utilize an informal, friendly, open communication with team-building, workshops and active learning to facilitate exchange of ideas, networking and future collaboration. Our lecturers were representatives from well-established businesses who shared their experience, inspired the participants and provided mentorship. (This aspect was rated as one of the most helpful to our participants in the Entrepreneurship Academy). To our knowledge, this was the first international Entrepreneurship Academy in our region and it offered a great opportunity to combine the diverse experiences, knowledge and skills from the participating countries. Innovation was born in conducive and cooperative environment, and our goal was to create one in the Balkan region with youth from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, and to empower young people to become the “engine” of positive change. After the end of the Entrepreneurship academy, our target group was better informed about the process of transforming an idea to a real product. They were theoretically and empirically prepared for writing project proposals, developing their ideas and pitching them to potential investors. They were further informed about the variety of possible funding sources (state, private, international, etc.). Young people had the chance to share their ideas with others who were sharing their interest and motivation, and could collaborate to make them a reality. After this academy the participants were more confident in their abilities and fearless to the obstacles that lie ahead, inspiring others along the way. We made it our priority to make sure that they can count on continuous access to expertise, guidance and assistance in their future endeavours. Showing young people that their ideas and vision matter was the ultimate award for our team. The Academy was preceded by transnational project meeting in Sofia where the representatives of the co-partners organisations discussed the main responsibilities of each partner, signed the inside contracts and discussed details about the Academy. After the Academy there was a final project meeting where the representatives of the co-partners organisations discussed the activities, participants, lecturers at the Academy, the result of the event and the follow-up from the participants. They also discussed the final report. The co-partners also looked at all the technical requirements of the program and checked all the declarations, list of participants and invoices they collected during the project activities.